A LATE MEDIEVAL painting that now hangs in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art is thought to show one of the earliest artistic representations of Down's syndrome.
In The Adoration of the Magi, a Flemish work by an unidentified artist dated to 1515, an angel hanging above the Christ child was identified by scientists as showing the typical features of the syndrome. So, it appeared, did a shepherd by the manger.
The psychiatrist Andrew Levitas, writing about the discovery, called it a haunting image of someone "with all the accoutrements of divinity". He speculated that the artist's model might have been living nearby, living in the community, or even from the artist's own family.
About five years ago in Leeds, photographer Richard Bailey gathered a group of colleagues and friends, along with family members with Down's syndrome, to stage a small exhibition of photographs.
"I decided I would take pictures of 365 children with Down's syndrome, one for every day of the year, to show the statistic that between one and two children are born with it every day in England alone," he says.
They were dressed in black T-shirts, to better show the characters and individual characteristics of the children. "They have a lot of similarities, but a lot of them look more like their parents," said Bailey.
His eldest daughter, Billie Joe, aged nine, has Down's. "The idea was to get across the individuality of the children," he says.
Panels of photographs from 365, and other images of people with Down's by Bailey and others, go on show at the Edinburgh Filmhouse for two weeks from tomorrow.
The aim of the travelling exhibition, Shifting Perspectives, is to challenge "attitudes and prejudices" of Down's in a move away from "Victorian negativity" to a more positive image.
The fact that an early painter portrayed people with Down's as angels is "fantastic", says Pandora Summerfield, the Down's Syndrome Scotland director.
But she adds: "Perhaps some of it is to do with stereotypes that we would question now, that they are all very loving. They have a kindly disposition, but they can get hacked off as well, and can be difficult, and commit crimes. You can't just paint a sweeping generalisation."
The exhibition marks World Down's Syndrome Day on Saturday, aiming to raise awareness that people with the condition live ordinary lives and aspire to the same things as everyone else, she says.
Early modern images of people with Down's syndrome are dominated by medical drawings or photographs, documenting the rounded face, flat profile, or eyes slanted upwards, described in medical texts.
"There wasn't very much imagery of Down's syndrome in the past," says Bailey. "The images I saw were pretty much medical-based imagery. There was never really any serious photographic inquiry."
A different kind of image emerges, however, when John Haydon Langdon-Down emerges on the scene. He was the first physician to identify the syndrome, and it was named for him. In 1868 he bought a house and opened it as "Normansfield", a home for the "care, education, and treatment of those of good social position who present any degree of mental deficiency". Patients were photographed elaborate Victorian dress.
"At the Langdon-Down centre, they found a whole load of images taken while he was there, of people in their finery, which is the way he treated them, as part of the family," says Bailey. "They were like Victorian studio portraits."
As one of his photographic projects, last year Bailey focused on culture, showing people with Down's syndrome in different places, cultures and religions.
A section on what young adults wanted to be, and do, includes Simon Beresford, a marathon runner, and a girl who said she liked "ironing and swearing", pictured at an ironing board.
Another photographer, Raf-aello Raimondi, photogaphed his brother, Rodriguo, with Down's syndrome, at a party where a friend turned 18. "They show dancing and romance and flirtation and rejection like any other party," says Bailey.
There are no certain figures on how many people have Down's syndrome in Scotland. It occurs about once in every 700 births. It is suggested the numbers of Down's syndrome births are rising as women opt to become mothers later in life, which is thought to increase the likelihood of Down's developing.
Highlights of the show include two photos taken by schoolgirl Karen Wotherspoon, 14, from Kingussie High School, of a sunset. She won first prize in a national environmental photographic competition for secondary schools with a picture of a sunset, and second prize for a photograph of a seal, which is being used by the Scottish Wildlife Trust on its website.
"Karen's got a talent and has had a camera for a long time and she takes it places and she has snapped two stunning pictures," says Summerfield. "Our goal is helping people realise their potential, and this is about people with Down's syndrome finding it and tapping it."
In addition to the exhibition, the Filmhouse in Edinburgh is showing Heavy Load, a film about a punk band that has three members with learning disabilities including the drummer, Michael who has Down's syndrome. Further images from the exhibition are online
www.ds2008.co.uk