“El cirujano” (The Surgeon) is a panel painting by Flemish artist Jan Sanders van Hemessen. It dates back to c. 1555 and can be admired in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
“A surgeon extracts a stone from a patient’s head. The scene takes place in an urban setting, probably a market. An aged helper holds the patient’s head, along with a youth, who prepares the unguents. Meanwhile, another patient grimaces grotesquely while waiting his turn. Hemessen criticizes the defrauding of patients by depicting the doctor with a sarcastic expression that reveals him as an impostor whose only interest is money”1.
- Photo by Luca Borghi @ (August 2013)
- Locate the item on this Google Map