Science (Pendant to Art), After Gerard Thomas en Formerly attributed to Balthasar van den Bossche
An iatrochemist performs a uroscopy, examining a small glass flask, while other activities take place in his busy workshop. A woman is waiting for her diagnosis, having brought the flask of urine in the wicker basket seen hanging from her right arm. Celestial and terrestrial globes, a hanging reptile, a seated dog, and alchemical apparatus are seen throughout the workshop. In the background are four assistants working near the hearth. In the right foreground a young man is working the bellows.
Gerard Thomas was a late Flemish Baroque painter who specialized in studio and picture gallery interiors. He became a master in Antwerp's Guild of St. Luke in 1688–89, and was dean twice. Many of his paintings reflect a trend in Antwerp painting around 1700 that shows artists—often historical masters from earlier in the century like Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck or Jacob Jordaens—in their studios, surrounded by paintings and sculptures, and teaching the craft to a young apprentice. The masters are often only hinted by the works of art pictured in the painting itself, however.
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