Cutting the Stone

Cutting the Stone, also called The Extraction of the Stone of Madness or The Cure of Folly, is a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, displayed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, completed around 1494 or later. The painting depicts the extraction, by a man wearing a funnel hat, of the stone of madness, a "keye" (in English a "stone" or "bulb") from a patient's head, using trepanation. In the painting Bosch has exchanged the traditional "stone" as the object of extraction with the bulb of a flower. Another flower is on the table. The inscription in gold-coloured Gothic script reads (Middle Dutch): Meester snyt die keye ras Myne name Is lubbert Das (English): Master, quickly cut away the stone my name is Lubbert Das Lubbert Das was a comical (foolish) character in Dutch literature.