The Sick Woman by Jan Steen is a fascinating, small Baroque oil painting showing medical practice of the seventeenth century. Painted around 1663, it is part of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
In this intimate scene, a young woman is portrayed weakened by fever (we can see it from the flush on her cheeks). Her head lies on a pillow while a figure – interpreted as a dubious doctor or quack (a fraudulent doctor) – examines her.
Some physicians of that time used to hold a strip of the woman’s clothing over a brazier, allowing it to smoulder in order to “test” the nature of her illness. According to certain popular medical beliefs of the seventeenth century, the smell produced by burning fabric could supposedly reveal whether a woman’s symptoms were caused by lovesickness, pregnancy, or some other hidden condition.
- Photos by Luca Borghi ti.supmacinu|ihgrob.l#| (August 2025) and page layout by Elena Rugolo (February 2026)
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