“This painting was made between 1475 and 1480 by Jeroen Anthoniszoon van Aken, a Dutch painter better known as El Bosco or Hieronymus Bosch. None of his artworks are dated, so there's no way we can find out the exact year. Many of his paintings were brought (to Spain) by the Spanish King Philip II after the death of the author. He was born in 1450 at Bolduc in Holland, son of Anthonis van Aken. Both his father and grandfather were also artists. He got married in 1481 to Aleid, who came from a family of good economic standing. Some of his most important works of art are The Garden of Earthly Delights, Haywain Triptych and The Last Judgment. Anyway, we can't fully attribute him any of these paintings. This is because the large amount of copycats he has and the unrecognizable signature. This medieval painting in particular shows a surgical operation being carried out by a surgeon, a common situation of the Middle Ages. It was painted between 1501 and 1505 in the Netherlands. By that time, it was believed that insane people had a stone inside their head, which provoked madness, and a cerebral lobotomy must be practiced to heal the person. Bosch criticizes with this painting false knowledge and the scams done to innocents. A doctor is extracting from the man's head a tulip instead of a stone, making us see that it is all a trick. The doctor has a funnel on his head, a symbol of stupidity, reflecting his ignorance. There is a dagger across the little sack of money the patient has on his waist, representing the scam that is being committed. The other two characters of the scene are a friar and a nun. They carry a closed book on top of the nun's head and a bottle of wine. The book represents the superstition and ignorance of the clergy, while the wine reflects the drunkenness that the artist attributed to those religious classes. Basically, this satirical representation criticizes those that boast about knowing, but end up being more ignorant than the people they pretend to heal. Above this frame we can see an inscription in Dutch which translates to 'Master, remove this stone from me soon', and below it says 'My name is Lubberdas'. The badger 'das' is considered lazy and 'Lubber' is a name that is used as a nickname for a fat and stupid person, while the verb 'lubben' means to castrate. When focusing on the technique, the most remarkable feature is the creation of a mirror effect with the background of a rural field. The painting does not stand out because of its dimensions, as they are pretty small, nor because of the technique, which being oil on board is pretty simple. The detail in the meaning of this work of art is where its value truly lies."