Two Medical Practitioners
Cornelis Dusart (Dutch, 1660-1704)
The Quack was a common theme in 17th-century Dutch art and is here represented by the Kopster. Her funnel as a hat and the clyster in the assistant’s belt signals their quackery. Using the light available from the window, the village surgeon treats the wound, clearly painful, as the patient’s wife watches. He is surrounded by the instruments of his trade including a scalpel, dressings, salves and a bleeding bowl.
-Jonathan Meakins
Two Medical Practitioners
Cornelis Dusart (Dutch, 1660-1704)
The Quack was a common theme in 17th-century Dutch art and is here represented by the Kopster. Her funnel as a hat and the clyster in the assistant’s belt signals their quackery. Using the light available from the window, the village surgeon treats the wound, clearly painful, as the patient’s wife watches. He is surrounded by the instruments of his trade including a scalpel, dressings, salves and a bleeding bowl.
-Jonathan Meakins