Cutting the Stone
| File:Cutting the Stone (Bosch).jpg | |
| Artist | Hieronymus Bosch |
|---|---|
| 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, displayed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, completed around 1494 or later.
The painting depicts the extraction, by a man wearing a funnel hat, of the stone of madness, a "keye" (modern Dutch: kei) (in English a "stone" or "bulb") from a patient's head, using trepanation.[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
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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.
Interpretations
It is possible 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 Skemer 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.
Foucault, in his History of Madness, says "Bosch's famous doctor is far more insane than the patient he is attempting to cure, and his false knowledge does nothing more than reveal the worst excesses of a madness immediately apparent to all but himself."
Attributed works
This painting, and others by Bosch, were an inspiration to the works of the musicians Wire. On their 1987 album The Ideal Copy, they included the track "Madman's Honey" which included the lyric "master cut the stone out, my name is Lubbert Das" — a direct reference to the painting.
The MSX game Don't Cock it Up used this painting for its box art.
References
Further reading
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cutting the Stone by Hieronymus Bosch. |
- (book on head) Binding Words Textual Amulets in the Middle Ages. Skemer, Don C. PA: Penn State University Press, 2006. p. 24, 136n. ISBN 0-271-02722-3.
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