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This painting treats a traditional theme of Netherlandish painting, the physician and the patient respectively associated with charlatanism and moral deficiency. Sickness of the body is but the outer manifestation of the sickness of the soul alienated from God by sin. The patient's eyes, turned to heaven, and the "dialogue" between the Bible and the clock (symbol of the vanity of human concerns) on each side of the window underscore that meaning.
The traditional title Dropsical Woman, mistaken, is supposed to have been inspired by the illusionist ewer painted on the shutters of the box protecting the painting. The ewer is the symbol of the purification by water, but actually the physician appears to be examining the urine.
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