There is a particular stillness in the faces of Amedeo Modigliani’s portraits. Elongated and instantly recognizable by their hollowed or pale blue eyes, with heads tilted like flowers resting on thin, swan-like necks, they now grace the walls of the world’s great museums. Many carry an unspoken fragility—a sense of life both vivid and already receding, much like their creator, who lived and died under the shadow of tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis was once so visible that its outward signs were aestheticized—what came to be known as “tubercular chic.” Today, the opposite has occurred. The disease has not disappeared, but rather receded from public awareness. Yet it remains the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent worldwide, affecting millions each year.

👉 Read the full essay on Substack:
The Disease We Romanticized—Then Forgot

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