Many Have Stones in Their Heads
Anonymous, 1720, Etching and engraving
A restrike of a broadside published after 1616, this print features men having stones of madness surgically removed from their heads and other parts of their anatomies. A subject that was common in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the theme is associated with the painter Hieronymus Bosch, who represented insanity as a hard, physical object from which the afflicted sought to free themselves by submitting to painful operations. By 1720, the procedure was considered its own descent into madness. The Great Mirror of Folly’s invocation of the practice points to the insanity of the cure as an expression of the craven mindset of those maniacally compelled to trade in stocks.
: Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs
The New York Public Library believes that this item is in the public domain under the laws of the United States, but did not make a determination as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. This item may not be in the public domain under the laws of other countries.
