Cutting the Stone
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| Artist | Hieronymus Bosch |
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| Year | c. 1494 or later |
| Type | Oil on board |
| Dimensions | 48 cm × 35 cm (19 in × 14 in) |
| Location | Museo del Prado, Madrid |
Cutting the Stone, also called The Extraction of the Stone of Madness or The Cure of Folly, is a painting by Hieronymus Bosch in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, completed around 1494 or later.
The painting depicts the extraction of the stone of madness, a "keye" (modern Dutch: kei) (in English a "stone" or "bulb") from a patient's head, using trepanation by a man wearing a funnel hat.[1] In the painting Bosch has exchanged the traditional "stone" as the object of extraction with the bulb of a flower. Another flower is on the table.
The Gothic inscription reads
Meester snyt die keye ras
Myne name Is lubbert Das
(in English: "Master, cut away the stone
my name is Lubbert das").
Lubbert Das was a comical (foolish) character in Dutch literature.
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[edit] Interpretations
It is possible that the flower is a pun on "tulip head" - meaning mad in Netherlands. Another possibility is 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 Skemmer to be a satire of the Flemish custom of wearing amulets made out of books and scripture, a pictogram for the word phylactery.[2] Otherwise, she is thought to depict folly.
[edit] Attributed works
This painting, and others by Bosch, were an inspiration to the works of the seminal Punk musicians Wire. On their album, "The Ideal Copy", they included a track titled "Madman's Honey" which included the lyric "master cut the stone out, my name is Lubbert Das" — a direct reference to this Bosch painting.
[edit] External links
Media related to Cutting the Stone at Wikimedia Commons
[edit] References
- ^ Povoledo, Elisabetta (October 27, 2008). "In Rome, a New Museum Invites a Hands-On Approach to Insanity". The Economist. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/arts/design/28insa.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss. Retrieved 2008-10-28. "The logo of the Mind’s Museum is an overturned funnel. It is a reference to a 15th-century painting by Hieronymus Bosch that depicts a doctor using a scalpel to extract an object (the supposed “stone of madness”) from the skull of a patient. The doctor is wearing a funnel as a hat."
- ^ Skemer 2006:24.
[edit] Further reading
- (book on head) Binding Words Textual Amulets in the Middle Ages. Skemer, Don C. PA: Penn State Press, 2006. p. 24, 136n. ISBN 0271027223.
