The Tooth-Puller 1651

Jan Steen created this painting, "The Tooth-Puller," in the Dutch Republic sometime in the mid-17th century. It depicts a traveling dentist extracting a tooth in a town square. Steen employs visual codes common to the era. The supposed dentist, with his elaborate hat and confident gesture, is undermined by the chaotic scene and the patient's obvious distress. It's a world of charlatans and gullible townspeople. Such scenes were common in Dutch genre painting, often offering a moralizing critique of society. The Dutch Republic, a mercantile power, saw a burgeoning art market in this period. Artists often catered to the tastes of the middle class, creating works that reflected their daily lives and social concerns. The tooth-puller was a common figure, and Steen's depiction can be seen as a commentary on the state of medicine and the credulity of the public. As historians, we can look to contemporary medical texts, popular literature, and the records of local guilds to better understand this artwork. These sources can help us decipher the social attitudes and institutions that shaped Steen's work, revealing its significance within its own time.