70-73

Attributed to Werner van den Valckert
A series of four paintings: The physician as God; The physician as an angel; The physician as a man; and The physician as the devil. Panels, each ca. 95 × 96.5 cm.

Leiden, Museum Boerhaave, inv.nrs. 811-814. Together with nrs.71-73, purchased for the museum at sale London (Christie's), July 2, 1976, with support from the Vereniging Rembrandt. The panels come from the collection of Count Otto Thot, Gaunø Castle, near Noarsted, Denmark, where they have been since 1785.

The physician is seen through the eyes of the patient in these four successive scenes: to the patient who has given himself up, the healer who saves his life is God himself. As long as he is ill, the patient will see his attending physician as an angel, and the convalescent will see him like a man. When the patient has recovered, however, and the doctor comes to present his bill, he becomes the devil incarnate.

The paintings are based on a suite of four engravings brought out by Hendrick Goltzius in 1587, but there are too many differences between the paintings and the prints for the former to be considered mere painted copies. Moreover, the difference in medium is very important. Four prints of an amusing and human subject like this, executed with such a fascinating wealth of detail, could be sold to anyone, but a series of large, precious paintings must have been made for a wealthy patron, most likely an individual physician or a guild.

The depiction of the instruments alone, which are shown with a great measure of accuracy, must have demanded considerable cooperation between the artist and a medical man. Moreover, the backgrounds of the paintings show three case histories in paint: a fever patient, one with a broken leg, and a third being treated by trepanation, boring a hole in the skull.

The texts in the books on the final painting reinforce our feeling that the series was a kind of advertisement for the medical profession.

The attribution to Werner van den Valckert has not been accepted by the most recent author on the master, Pieter van Thiel. No new name has as yet been proposed. The Danish provenance of the painting reminds us of the lively export to Scandinavia of Dutch paintings throughout the seventeenth century. There were even ambitious series of paintings commissioned by Scandinavian patrons from Dutch painters – including one for the King of Denmark on which Werner van den Valckert worked.

Museum information, with kind thanks to Peter de Clercq.