Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Alexandru Gh. Sonoc

  • The village uroscopist

    Alexandru Sonoc Sibiu, Romania     The Village Physician David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania   A physician sits in his studio at a table on which stand several covered vases. He has a book in his left hand and holds in his right hand a glass flask against the light…

  • Portrait of a peasant

    Peasant Unknown painter from the Netherlands, late 17th century Brukenthal National Museum Alexandru Gh. Sonoc Sibiu, Romania   This peasant is shown wearing a green shirt, decorated on the shoulders with a red line and at the neck with a white lace collar, as well as a wide brown hat. He is disfigured by a…

  • Medical art from the Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu, Romania

    Alexandru Sonoc Sibiu, Romania   Several works in the European collection of the Brukenthal National Museum are of interest to the history of medicine. Most of them are works by Dutch and Flemish painters, mainly from the 17th-century: The Summer by Jakob Jordaens, The Trapped Peasant by Adriaen van der Venne, The Bloodletting and The…

  • The Summer

    Alexandru Gh. Sonoc Sibiu, Romania   The Summer Jakob Jordaens (1593-1678) Paper on fire tree panel, 32 x 62 cm Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania   On the right side, darkened perhaps to suggest an approaching storm, a woman with bare breast is looking up to the left. On the left side a younger woman is…

  • Evidence of a skull trepanning

    Alexandru Gh. Sonoc Sibiu, Romania   Unknown man with a white feather Christopher Paudiss (1618-1666) Oil on fire wood panel Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania The man shown here wears a blue velvet hat with a white feather and a brown-reddish cloak. Around his neck he has a brocade scarf in red, ocher, and blue.…

  • The village’s physician

    Alexandru Sonoc Sibiu, Romania   In a peasant house a sick woman lies in bed. An old physician is writing a prescription on a table on which there are already three small bottles of medicine. He is surrounded by the patient’s relatives, concerned but full of hope, all wearing traditional peasant costumes. An old man…

  • The trapped peasant

    Alexandru Gh. Sonoc Sibiu, Romania   The Trapped Peasant, 1631Adriaen van der Venne (1589–1662) Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania A strange looking dentist (tall hat, long hair, goatee, sword, tall boots) is pulling a peasant’s tooth. Behind the peasant, a woman (traditionally considered as his wife, but more likely a prostitute) opens a purse hanging…

  • Paracelsus: physician and alchemist

    Alexandru Gh. Sonoc Sibiu, Romania   Paracelsus, 1935 F. Görtitz. Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania. This painting shows the famous alchemist and physician Paracelsus holding a retort in his hands and standing in front of a furnace on which is placed a glass balloon. In front of the furnace a pair of bellows lie on…