The Dentist
by LEYDEN, Lucas van, Engraving, 149 x 96 mm
The theme of the dentist or tooth-puller in art has Northern European roots. The iconography of this conventional theme was fixed with Lucas van Leyden’s famous engraving dated 1523. This early engraving already contains all the motifs emphasized in later representations: the ostensibly expert dentist and the gullible, bumpkin patient who is relieved of his purse by the dentist’s accomplice.