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The Surgeon (1670s)

David Teniers the Younger (Flemish, 1610-1690)
Oil on Canvas 22.5" x 29"
17th Century Gallery
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

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The patient snarls at his doctor who poses steadily to lance a boil, while another assistant in the background prepares a patient for bleeding. Take a moment to study each face in this painting. How many faces do you see, and what do their expressions reveal about the events occurring here? Moreover, what does this scene from the daily work of a country barber-surgeon suggest about medical practice in the 17th century?

David Teniers the Younger, born in Antwerp in 1610, continued a strong tradition of genre painting that so aptly characterized Flemish art of the 17th century. Many of his paintings addressed popular issues of his day, including the questionable practices of country doctors. A pupil of his own father, Teniers the Elder (1582-1649), the young artist joined the Antwerp painters' guild in 1633 and married the daughter of famed artist Jan Brueghel in 1637. His landscapes and genre scenes grew so popular among his contemporaries that he became the court painter of the Netherlands' governor in 1651 and also worked for Philip IV of Spain. The Surgeon represents a classic example of Teniers' mastery of color, detail, and subtle humor.

 

The shaded area of the21st-century map represents Flanders, an area that remained under Spanish rule from the time of the Reformation throughtout the 17th century. Flanders disappeared as a political entity after the French Revolutionary Wars. The star represents the province of Antwerp.

Where is the humor in this composition? Are you squirming with uneasy sympathy for the patient's plight, or wincing at the doctor's sharp scalpel? Among the almost 2,000 paintings generated by this industrious artist, The Surgeon stands out as a satiric and symbolic commentary on society's reluctance to embrace the healing arts as a scientific profession rather than a spiritual one. While the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) raged, fueled by Protestant and Catholic disputes, scientists were developing theories that challenged traditional ideas upheld by the Church. Scientists and theologians found themselves at odds during this century -- would factual observation and experimentation disturb faith?

Teniers painted numerous images of country doctors, whose "hocus-pocus" remedies were the laughing stock of modern medicine. "Already in the late Middle Ages, a good many members of the professional classes -- lawyers, dentists, doctors -- were satirized by Netherlandish writers and painters, who frequently portrayed doctors as charlatans and quacks," says Jeff Harrison, chief curator of the Chrysler. "This was especially true of the lowly traveling barber-surgeon." Plus, numerous symbols within the painting underscore the artist's feelings toward these amateur practitioners of the healing arts.

For instance, what is the significance of the fish skeleton and the globe hanging from the ceiling in this illustration? How does the monkey in the lower right corner of the composition fit into the scene? These images were popular symbols used by artists in this century to suggest the folly of man's scientific pursuits. The skeleton and the globe were traditional symbols of alchemy -- the "false science" of the Middle Ages that aimed to change baser metals into gold and to discover the elixir of perpetual youth. The numerous vials and decanters in the barber-surgeon's office further suggest such pursuits. The monkey? A popular symbol of foolishness. The apple in the animal's hand strongly suggests that Teniers wants viewers to associate the doctor's quack arts with the Biblical Fall of Man.

Regardless of these symbolic warnings against scientific endeavors, many viewers cannot help snickering at the patient's wincing snarl, a funny face that breaks the potentially dark mood of this painting. In the awkward or tender moments of daily life, Teniers developed a mastery of his genre. "He saw life in a smaller frame, in more intimate glimpses of what the common folk did every day, in their work, their eating and drinking, their fighting, their ailments, their loving," suggests one twenty-first century doctor, Therese Southgate. "Teniers looked inward and saw the significance of the insignificant things of a daily life." With rich symbolism and unforgettable facial expressions in The Surgeon, Teniers pokes fun at the creative cures for the sick attempted by doctors of his day.

- Julie Strohkorb

What scientific discoveries happened in the 17th century? ö German astronomer Johannes   Kepler (1571-1630) relied on the work of Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) to devise his three laws of planetary motion, including an explanation for the elliptical orbit of planets around the sun. ö By studying cork under a microscope in 1665, English scientist Robert Hooke (1635-1703) first used the term "cells" to describe the basic units that make up the bodies of all living things. ö Improvements to the microscope by Dutch scientist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1712) advanced studies in cytology, and paved the way to later understanding of germs. In 1674 he described human red blood cells. ö English physician William Harvey (1578-1657) established the theory of circulation of blood through the body, and the function of the heart as a pump. ö Advanced studies of plant anatomy began with Italian microscopist Marcello Malphighi (1628-1694) and English botanist Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712). Grew's The Anatomy of Plants, published in 1682, led the way to the modern scientific classification of plants. ö British scientist Isaac Newton (1642-1727) published the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in 1687, which explained his three laws of motion and the law of gravity.

What is genre painting?

Painting of scenes from daily life instead of idealized subject matter - for example, depicting ordinary people at work or play in a generally realistic manner. This term typifies much of the works of such 17th century artists as Pieter Brueghel, Adriaen Brouwer, and David Teniers the Younger. Teniers and his contemporaries were heavily influenced by the work of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), who excelled in portraiture, landscape, mythological, and religious painting, as well as genre painting.

RESOURCES

Harrison, Jefferson C. The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections. Norfolk: The Chrysler Museum of Art, 1991.

Medicine: A History of Healing. Ed. Roy Porter. New York: Marlowe and Company, 1997.

Seventeenth Century Flemish Painting. Ed. Erik Larsen Germany: Luca Verlag Freren, 1985.

Southgate, M. Therese. The Cover. The Journal of the American Medical Association. 15 Jul. 1988: 305.

The Medical Revolution of the Seventeenth Century. Ed. Roger French and Andrew Wear. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.