A Texas doctor has claimed that the Mona Lisa’s model was overweight and the rise of Ozempic-like drugs could remove the depiction of larger people in contemporary art and further stigmatize obesity.
Doctor Michael Yafi, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, recently shared his views at the European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul.
The doctor said that throughout history, being overweight has been a symbol of wealth and prosperity, inspiring many iconic works of art.
‘Men with obesity were portrayed as heroes, leaders, royals and nobles and women with excess body fat were symbols of beauty, fertility and prosperity,’ he said, according to the Independent.
He used examples such as the Venus of Willendorf, a statue estimated to be 30,000 years old, which depicts a woman with a large belly, breasts and hips.
The doctor also discussed ancient Greek depictions of the god of wealth, Pluto, who was often portrayed as obese.
And he discussed the way 29 out of the 36 Ottoman emperors who lived between 1258 and 1929 were depicted as overweight or reported to have obesity.
He also, of course, cited the Mona Lisa and said that the Italian noblewoman thought to have been the model for the portrait, Lisa Gherardini, was overweight due to her four pregnancies.
Doctor Michael Yafi, a pediatric endocrinologist, has said that the Mona Lisa’s model was overweight and that the rise of GLP-1 drugs could cause depictions of overweight people to disappear in art
The Italian noblewoman thought to have been the model for the Mona Lisa, Lisa Gherardini, was overweight due to her four pregnancies, according to Doctor Yafi
Yafi suggested that doctors should study historical artistic depictions of obesity to better understand how it was perceived in the past so that they can offer better treatments for patients in the present.
‘If physicians see that obesity was for centuries viewed as a positive thing, it will help them be non-judgmental and more empathic,’ he said.
The doctor also said he believes that the rapid rise of GLP-1 weight loss drugs such as Ozempic will cause depictions of overweight people to decline in contemporary and future works of art.
He noted that the weight loss drugs cause gaunt faces, which he dubbed ‘GLP-1 face,’ and said: ‘I am sure that if Picasso had been alive today, he would have painted it.’
Use of GLP-1 drugs has indeed skyrocketed over the past few years. According to a Gallup survey of 15,000 US adults, 12.4 percent of them reported taking the weight loss drugs in mid-2025, up from 5.8 percent in February 2024.
The upward trend is expected to continue as pharmaceutical companies keep researching, improving and marketing the drugs, which have also shown promise for addiction treatment.
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Yafi said that being overweight was a symbol of wealth and prosperity for most of human history and cited the Venus of Willendorf (pictured), which is estimated to be 30,000 years old
Use of GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic (pictured, stock image) has increased dramatically in recent years, and Yafi believes that will impact the way people are portrayed in art and the stigma surrounding obesity
Doctor Yafi said that obesity only began to be stigmatized in art and media in the second half of the 20th century, which ‘led to images of thin, often unrealistically thin, men and women being glorified.’
‘Suddenly, thin people became beautiful and the women who inspired artists for centuries were no longer considered attractive,’ he added.
If the rise of GLP-1 drugs continues at a rapid pace and causes more Americans to no longer be overweight, that stigma surrounding obesity could become even worse, according to Yafi.
