An Unusual Patchy Alopecia in a 15th Century Altarpiece From Colmar, France

“27Then the governor′s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.” As in the scriptures, Isenmann painted a soldier putting a staff in the right hand of the Christ and kneeling before Him on his left. By saluting Him with his hat off, the soldier reveals a very unusual hairstyle with patches of alopecia (Figure 2). Other characters in the altarpiece display various hairstyles including androgenic alopecia, but we failed to find any other characters with similar hair features in the altarpiece, but also in other artworks and altarpieces exhibited in the museum. Depictions of scalp and hair disorders in artworks are not that frequent when browsing large museum collections [2-4]. Illustrations of scalp ringworm or favus have been identified in masterpieces by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682) [5, 6], Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) [6, 7] or Dutch artists Jan de Bray (c.1626/7–1697) or Ferdinand Bol (1616–1680) [6]. Cases of alopecia areata in artworks are even more rare [8]. Borroni identified a representation of beard alopecia areata in the Saint Sebastian by Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506) and exhibited at the Louvre Museum. The children depicted in Goya's artworks could also be alopecia areata patches and not tinea [8]. Interestingly, Borroni has identified also in his article the altar by Isenmann [8]. Of course, we cannot confirm with certainty that the soldier is presenting alopecia areata or tinea capitis, or even pseudopelade of Brocq or tuffed-hair folliculitis. The choice of this hairstyle is most likely stylistic to accentuate the inhumane or repulsive nature of the soldier humiliating Christ. Isenmann might have drawn inspiration from real conditions like tinea capitis, alopecia areata or other any scalp condition associated with hair loss. Artists of the time freely mixed medical conditions [8] thus explaining the “bizarre” clinical presentation here. The hair style may reflect here moral or spiritual degradation of the character. Nicolas Kluger: conceptualization, data curation, writing original draft, reviewing and validation. The author received no specific funding for this work. The author have nothing to report. The author declare no conflicts of interest. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.