3-061-605 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Aesculapius and other ancients are presented with exotic materia medica from the far east, which are turned into medicines in a pharmaceutical laboratory, 16 July 1791. From left to right, Apollo holding a bow, Aesculapius holding his rod in one hand and a poppy in the other, and Hippocrates, who holds a skull and a syringe, and has a garment inscribed with the proverb 'know thyself'. In the foreground, putti bring to the ancients a box of exotic materia medica of the kind brought back from Asia to Europe by the VOC (Dutch East-India Company). One of the items on the steps in the foreground is a book containing two prints by Jan L'Admiral which were published in books by well-known Dutch authors in the 1730s.