The Physician Considered as God, plate one from Allegories of the Medical Profession.

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

This anonymous engraving after Hendrick Goltzius depicts a seemingly omnipotent doctor analyzing a urine flask. The two competing paths of contemporary medicine appear in the background throughout the series. On the left, a more theoretical medical doctor attends a sickbed, while on the right, a practical surgeon tends to a man with broken limbs from a fall (the accident appears through the window). The central physician figure undergoes a transformation in plates two through four, progressing from an angel (when his patient improves slightly), to a man (when he has nearly cured his charge), and finally to a devil (when he proposes his fee).

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