Love sickness, pregnancy

Jan Steen
1626, Leiden – 1679, Leiden, the Netherlands

♦ The visit to the doctor ♦

With a theatrical gesture, a doctor takes the pulse of a sick girl whilst her mother holds the urine bottle. A ribbon is being burnt in a dish.

♦ Diagnosis
Main symptoms: Headache, burning sensation.
Secondary symptoms: Young girl, the doctor and mother acting the part, young boy with a bow and arrow, Venus and Adonis in a painting on the wall.
Clinical diagnosis: Love sickness, pregnancy.

♦ Definition: love sickness
Falling in love, or suffering from unrequited love and other related emotional experiences, can cause serious physical problems in some people, such as anxiety, an inflated sense of self-importance and depression.

♦ Discussion
Jan Steen painted more than forty different versions of a visit to the doctor, each featuring an elderly doctor examining a glass bottle of urine provided by the patient – usually a young woman lying stretched out in bed or resting on cushions in a chair.
The painting of Venus and Adonis on the wall and the little boy playing with a bow and arrow – a contemporary version of Cupid – are clear indications that a love affair is the cause of this illness.
The burning ribbon in the earthenware dish at the girl’s feet refers to a traditional folk custom used to determine whether the girl was pregnant. It was believed that a pregnant woman would fall ill from the smoke released.

Source: Jan Dequeker

Love sickness, pregnancy

References