A woman in bed about to be cupped by a surgeon for love-sickness. Gouache, ca. 1700.

The woman in bed has a tourniquet around her right arm, in preparation for the lancing of a vein. In one hand she holds a cupping glass, to be warmed and then used for extracting superfluous blood. A surgeon, upper left, presses his finger against the blood-letting point in her arm. In the right foreground, Cupid, shown as a winged boy, acts as the surgeon's apprentice by warming the cupping glass with a candle. With his left hand he, and a seated woman on the left, pull the cover off an indistinct object (a brazier?). The seated woman, in the role of Venus, holds a porringer

The costumes and hair-styles appear to be French-influenced, but the subject could be set in courtly circles in France, England, or the Netherlands, between ca. 1680 and ca. 1710. The wall in the background includes a marbled pilaster

1700

1 painting : gouache on ivory ; ivory 6.1 x 8.3 cm

Wellcome Collection 2818721i