Tooth Puller (attr.) Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610)

Description of Merisi da Caravaggio’s painting "The Bisoner" (1609)

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the depiction of genre scenes became widespread in art, providing an opportunity to capture the images of those involved from curious angles, outlining the varied experiences of the characters. Caravaggio himself made a significant contribution to the formation of European domestic painting, using appropriate content as well as choosing to use people of ordinary rank as subjects for his subjects. The painting may be the most recent to have been created in Florence.

Some art historians dispute the painting’s authorship, even though its style and practice of using motifs is inherent in his work. The painting depicts a fragment of the life of commoners, transfixed by a manifestation of undisguised harsh emotions, which was not characteristic of Caravaggio, as is the demonstratively reduced, unconcealed genre content. The treatment of the images plucked from darkness is sharply dramatic. The coloring of the canvas is dark.

The canvas depicts an unusual scene: a table in a tavern with several people seated at it. The center of the composition is a depiction of an operation to extract a tooth in medieval conditions for a patient who has one hand raised, while the other is trying to hold onto the handle of a chair. A trickle of blood flows from his mouth, his mouth gaping in screaming. The healer stands behind him, one hand holding the patient’s shoulder and the other firmly grasping the instrument with which he pulls out the uncomfortable tooth. The doctor works with effort, his face fixed on the viewer with a grimace of eagerness and an intense look.

On the left edge of the painting, a group of witnesses to the brutal cure are watching with interest, feeling both confusion and compassion at the same time. A small child clutches his hands on the edge of the table, but cannot tear himself away from the sight of the sufferer’s merciless torment. An elderly woman sitting at the table on the right, with her head bandaged, stands up in restless real estate, tensely observing the procedure, while next to her, a half-naked man, leaning on the arm resting on the tabletop, sits indifferently: nothing can affect him anymore. The master has admirably revealed the characters of his characters, each reacting differently to the procedure, which is tormenting the man.