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A surgeon extracts a stone from a patient's head. The scene takes place in an urban setting, probably a market. An aged helper holds the patient's head, along with a youth, who prepares the unguents. Meanwhile, another patient grimaces grotesquely while waiting his turn. Hemessen criticizes the defrauding of patients by depicting the doctor with a sarcastic expression that reveals him as an impostor whose only interest is money.
The subject was frequent in Flemish painting, as in the earlier works by Hieronymus Bosch. The influence of Da Vinci's sfumato is combined here with a meticulous depiction of objects and of the physiognomy of the characters. Van Hemessen's painting combines Flemish realism with the monumentality of the Italian Renaissance.
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