The Medical Alchemist

Three figures are shown in a well-lit room in front of an open window. In the background is a cabinet full of glassware. Centrally, a seated alchemist in a physician's red cap with fur trim holds a flask in his right hand and leans with his left on a table and an open astrological book. The alchemist looks poorly dressed and unkempt, with balding hair and a scruffy beard. The Turkish carpet on the table is frayed. The physician holds up a urinal to inspect its contents, including the sediment that has collected at the bottom, against the light. At left in the middle ground, an older seated woman holds a walking stick, facing the alchemist. In the left foreground a man kneels, his head turned right to watch the diagnosis. He is using bellows to blow up the fire of an open free standing furnace. On top of the furnace is a distillation apparatus. A red fluid is being distilled in the retort, and a yellow distillate has collected in the receiver. A wicker basket full of charcoal is within reach of the assistant. In the right foreground on the floor are books, a mortar and pestle, apparatus, and a scroll with planetary and zodiacal symbols. At the time of painting, astrological medicine was no longer practiced by reputable physicians, so the inclusion of the astrological details suggests he is somewhat of a quack.