The Physician Considered as God, plate one from Allegories of the Medical Profession.

<p>This anonymous engraving after Hendrick Goltzius depicts a seemingly omnipotent doctor analyzing a urine flask. The two competing paths of contemporary medicine appear in the background throughout the series. On the left, a more theoretical medical doctor attends a sickbed, while on the right, a practical surgeon tends to a man with broken limbs from a fall (the accident appears through the window). The central physician figure undergoes a transformation in plates two through four, progressing from an angel (when his patient improves slightly), to a man (when he has nearly cured his charge), and finally to a devil (when he proposes his fee).</p>