Dutch school, XVII-XVIII centuries

Dutch School, XVII-XVIII centuries.
"Surgeon in action".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 31 x 26.5 cm; 41 x 37 cm (frame).

This type of painting, popular in the Netherlands during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is part of a genre known as "scenes of doctors" or "charlatans". The work captures with raw realism and intense drama a surgical operation without anesthesia.

The patient is the most expressive figure and the emotional focus of the painting. Seated and dressed in a striking red and yellow jacket, his face is completely disfigured by pain. His mouth is open, his eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed. His fists, clenched tightly, and the saliva dripping from his mouth, convey his agony in a visceral, unfiltered manner. The top of his head has been shaved for the procedure. Standing behind the patient, the surgeon is an older man bent over his work with absolute concentration. He wears a pair of glasses, which magnify his eyes and underline his meticulous approach. With one hand he holds the patient's head while with the other he wields a small sharp instrument (possibly a scalpel or lancet) to make an incision in the scalp. His expression is serious and professional, oblivious to the obvious suffering of his patient. On the left, an older woman, probably an assistant or family member, holds the patient by the shoulder. Her face, marked by concern and apprehension, stares at the wound. She holds the patient both to immobilize him and, perhaps, to offer ineffective comfort in the face of such pain. His presence adds a layer of empathy and concern to the cold technical execution of the surgeon.

The scene depicted is most likely that of a fraudulent operation known as "the extraction of the stone of madness." It was believed at the time that insanity, stupidity or certain mental ailments were caused by a stone lodged in the brain. Charlatan surgeons toured the cities offering to "cure" the afflicted by extracting this supposed stone, which in reality was a stone that the "surgeon" himself hid in his hand and pretended to have removed from the patient's head after a superficial incision.