A quack-doctor examining a urine flask. Oil painting.

Date:
1549
Reference:
44747i
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Credit

A quack-doctor examining a urine flask. Oil painting. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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About this work

Description

Left, a fat man wearing spectacles holds up a urine flask brought to him by a woman. On the right is the woman with the wicker basket used for transporting the urine flask. Between them is a post with a banner bearing the date 1549

"Harnbeschau 1549. Runder Holzteller zum Aufhängen, 24,5 cm Durchmesser, in Oel bemalt, datiert 1549, süddeutsch. Merkwürdige und amüsante Darstellung: Der Arzt in rotem Gewand mit grünem Mantel, mit Brille (frühe Brillendarstellung!) besieht den Urin, den ihm eine alte Frau in einer Flasche von zu diesem Zweck damals allgemein gebrauchter Form, brachte. Auf seiner Schulter ein reiherartiger Vogel. Besonders interessant der Korb, den die Frau zum Tragen der Flasche benutzte. Aus der Literatur ist bekannt, das damals, als das Harnbeschau-Unwesen auf dem Höhepunkt stand, besonders angefertigte Körbe zum Transport der Urinflaschen ver-wendet wurden, doch hat sich anscheinend kein Exemplar eines solchen erhalten. Unsere Darstellung ist ein besonders interessanter und über die Form Auskunft gebender Beleg dafür. Alter Bruch in der Mitte sorgfältig ausgebessert, sehr gut erhalten. Urine-examination 1549. Round wooden plate (to hang up), 24.5 cm in diameter, painted in oil, dated 1549, South-German. Very curious and interesting representation: the doctor in a red robe with green mantle and spectacles (an early representation of these) examines the urine, which an old woman has brought to him in a bottle, of a kind generally used in this time for such purposes. On his shoulder a heron is perched. Especially interesting is the basket which the woman used to carry the bottle. It is known from literature, that in these times, when the popular form of urology was at its height, people used baskets of a special form to carry the urine-bottles, but it seems that no example is preserved to us. Our picture gives an interesting illustration of such a basket. Old fracture in the middle carefully repaired, in very good state of preservation."--Taeuber and Weil. loc. cit.

Publication/Creation

1549.

Physical description

1 painting : oil on wood ; wood, diameter 24.2 x 25 cm

Lettering

1549

References note

Taeuber & Weil GmbH, Alte medizinische Instrumente, Munich 1930, pp. 8-9, no. 36, and p. 16, Abb. X

Reference

Wellcome Collection 44747i

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