Monsieur de Pourceaugnac
Dublin Core
Title
Monsieur de Pourceaugnac
Subject
Social satire, Medicine in art
Description
Rabelais helped to establish a French tradition for satirizing the medical profession that continued for generations in various artistic genres. The razor-witted Montaigne (1533-1592) once quipped, “And how many have not escaped dying, who have had three physicians always at their tails?” Molière (1622-1673), the master of French farce, relied on lampooned medicine as a comedic strategy for several plays, including the famous Le malade imaginare, in which a wealthy hypochondriac is enabled by sycophantic doctors. This engraving illustrates a scene from Molière’s Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, in which two mercenary physicians take Monsieur’s pulse to convince him he is sick, while an assistant prepares a clyster syringe, a common device of early modern scatalogical humor.
Creator
François Joullain (1697-1778), after Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694-1752)
Source
[no text]
Publisher
Louis Surugue (1686 c. - 1762)
Date
1726
Contributor
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
Rights
Relation
Format
Engraving; original dimensions, 258 x 322 mm
Language
[no text]
Type
Still image
Identifier
[no text]
Coverage
[no text]
Files
Collection
Citation
François Joullain (1697-1778), after Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694-1752)
, “Monsieur de Pourceaugnac,” The Anatomist: Early Modern Medical Satire, accessed March 28, 2024, https://anatomist.omeka.net/items/show/11.