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Overview
Born in the city of Leiden, Lucas van Leyden was the first Dutch engraver to achieve wide acclaim in his lifetime. He made about 200 prints, mostly engravings, but also woodcuts and a few etchings. He met Albrecht Dürer in 1521 during the German artist's year-long visit to the Netherlands, and Dürer drew van Leyden's portraits and bought a set of his prints. It is likely that van Leyden simultanously acquired some of Dürer's prints, as his influence is evident in van Leyden's work in the early 1520s.
The robust realism of this print, and its depiction of ordinary people, would in turn be influential on a near contemporary - and another close follower of Dürer, Hans Sebald Beham and his panoramic woodcut The Large Village Fair (c. 1535), where the antics of a dentist and his unfortunate patient form one of many sub-plots. The outdoor, fair-like setting is common to both prints. In this print, van Leyden depicts a dentist, clad in a large, fanciful hat and an ornate robe, probing the teeth of a clearly agonised, impoverished peasant. Immediately behind him stands the dentist's demure woman assistant, who picks the patient's purse. Her pained appearance should not be interpreted as sympathy - rather she is disappointed that the pickings are so slim. One senses that Lucas had little sympathy with the peasant, who is treated comically: the viewer is meant to regard him as simple, naive and even stupid for allowing himself to be trapped in such circumstances. In turn, the quack dentist looks convincingly wise and professional, yet instead of seeking his patient's welfare and fulfilling his role as a healer, he takes advantage of his privileged position to rob him. Further indications of the dentist's plausibility are his ornate, sealed diploma, teeth adorning his headgear - trophies attesting to his competence - and ointments and instruments carefully laid on the table beside him. At the time, dentists did not enjoy an enviable reputation - a French saying translates as 'to lie like a teeth-puller'.
See:
'J.B.H.' [J. B. Haldane], 'The Dentist', in History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 8,4 (1963), p. 378.
David Maskill, 'Lucas van Leyden 1494-1533 Netherlands', in Art at Te Papa, edited by William McAloon (Wellington, 2009), p. 26.
Keith Moxey, Peasants, Warriors and Wives: Popular Imagery in the Reformation (Chicago, 2004), pp. 52-53.
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art January 2017