Cutting the Stone
15th-century painting by Hieronymus Bosch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cutting the Stone, also called The Extraction of the Stone of Madness or The Cure of Folly, is an oil-on-panel painting completed c.1494 or later by the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch.[1] It is now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
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| Cutting the Stone | |
|---|---|
| |
| Artist | Hieronymus Bosch |
| Year | c. 1494 or later |
| Type | Oil on board |
| Dimensions | 48 cm × 35 cm (19 in × 14 in) |
| Location | |
The painting depicts a surgeon, wearing a funnel hat, removing the stone of madness from a patient's head by trepanation.[2] An assistant, a monk bearing a tankard, stands nearby. Playing on the double-meaning of the word kei (stone or bulb), the stone appears as a flower bulb, while another flower rests on the table. A woman with a book balanced on her head looks on.
The inscription in gold-coloured Gothic script reads:
(Middle Dutch):
Meester snyt die keye ras
Myne name Is lubbert Das
(English):
Master, cut the stone out, fast.
My name is Lubbert Das.
Lubbert Das was a comical (foolish) character in Dutch literature.
Interpretations
It is possible that the flower hints that the doctor is a charlatan as does the funnel hat. The woman balancing a book on her head is thought by Skemer to be a satire of the Flemish custom of wearing amulets made out of books and scripture, a pictogram for the word phylactery.[3] Otherwise, she is thought to depict folly.
