The Physician Considered as God, plate one from Allegories of the Medical Profession.
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
Image: 17.4 × 22.5 cm (6 7/8 × 8 7/8 in.); Plate/sheet: 18.5 × 22.5 cm (7 5/16 × 8 7/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
51100
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
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 f...
About the Artist
Hendrick Goltzius · 1558–1617
Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617) was the most celebrated engraver of the Northern Renaissance and a pivotal figure in Dutch Mannerism. Born near the German-Dutch border, Goltzius transformed printmaking into a virtuoso art form through his revolutionary 'swelling line' technique, where the burin was manipulated to create lines of varying thickness that produced unprecedented tonal effects and three-d...