Trouble Comes to the Alchemist
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Artist |
Unknown authorUnknown author |
Title |
Trouble Comes to the Alchemist |
Description |
Trouble Comes to the Alchemist
Dutch School, 17th-century
Although the title suggests this is an image of an alchemist, the scene is one of a physician conducting a uroscopy for a female patient. Similar objects are used in both practices, such as a mortar and pestle, a variety of flasks and containers, a human skull, an hourglass, a celestial globe, and books. The alchemist sits at a table, holding a uroscopy flask with fluid in it; he is looking upward, with one hand upraised. An old woman is deliberately emptying her piss pot on the physician's head. To the right of the man stands a woman in a red dress, his patient. Under the table a dog is curled up. The cello in the painting was traditionally a symbol of love and may be a warning about sexual promiscuity. The poem on the table, attributed to Socrates, implies that the furious woman above is like Xanthippe, the Greek philosopher's famously shrewish wife. It reads:
ick wi[s]t wel vrou
ten is geen wonder
het reghenen [s]ou
naer dit gedonder
I knew well woman, it's no wonder, it would rain, after this thunder.
"gedonder" also means "mess" or "trouble" |
Date |
17th century date QS:P571,+1650-00-00T00:00:00Z/7 |
Medium |
oil on canvas mounted on board |
Dimensions |
height: 31 in (78.7 cm); width: 22.2 in (56.5 cm) dimensions QS:P2048,31U218593 dimensions QS:P2049,22.25U218593 |
Collection |
Science History Institute
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Location |
315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19106 |
Coordinates |
39° 56′ 56.04″ N, 75° 08′ 47.4″ W |
Established |
1982 |
Website |
http://www.sciencehistory.org/ |
Authority file |
- : Q5090408
- VIAF: 4412163159960301640007
- ISNI: 0000000121917991
- LCCN: no2021104345
- BNF: 16931028s
- NKC: ko2010557072
- WorldCat
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institution QS:P195,Q5090408 |
Accession number |
FA 2000.001.269 |
Exhibition history |
The Fisher Collection at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia PA, December 13, 1972 to March 4, 1973 nr. 24. |
Credit line |
Gift of Fisher Scientific International, Science History Institute. |
Inscriptions |
Formerly attributed to Pieter van Slingelandt.
Remnants of two different signatures in the bottom right corner:
1. The darker, most visible of the two reads "P. Sl……" It is aged and abraded. The right half is missing. The placement of the signature is strange as it is too far to the right for the entire name to fit.
2. There is a very abraded, older signature, only visible under the stereomicroscope. It starts with a "P" but the rest of the lettering is illegible. |
Notes |
Image downloaded with permission from the Science History Institute, as part of the Wikipedian in Residence initiative. |
Source/Photographer |
Science History Institute, Will Brown. |
Permission (Reusing this file) |
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This file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the Science History Institute as part of a cooperation project.
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This is a faithful photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
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This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.
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