An itinerant surgeon extracting stones from a man's head; symbolising the expulsion of 'folly' (insanity), they are surrounded by a group of people. Pencil drawing by P. Quast, 1645.

  • Quast, Pieter Jansz., 1606-1647.
Date:
1645
Reference:
21093i
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view An itinerant surgeon extracting stones from a man's head; symbolising the expulsion of 'folly' (insanity), they are surrounded by a group of people. Pencil drawing by P. Quast, 1645.

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An itinerant surgeon extracting stones from a man's head; symbolising the expulsion of 'folly' (insanity), they are surrounded by a group of people. Pencil drawing by P. Quast, 1645. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Description

The images of a surgeon (often itinerant) making an incision in a patient's head in order to extract 'stones' (implying madness in the individual) do not represent an actual operation, but are allegorical scenes refering to the subduction of 'folly' (madness) from the body. See further Schupbach, loc. cit.

Publication/Creation

1645

Physical description

1 drawing on vellum : pencil ; image 25 x 29.3 cm

Contributors

Lettering

PQ 1645

References note

W. Schupbach, 'A new look at The cure of folly', Medical history, 1978, vol. 22, pp. 267-281

Reference

Wellcome Collection 21093i

Type/Technique

Subjects

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