Cutting the Stone

A quack in an upturned funnel hat - the badge of a charlatan - cuts into a seated man's skull to remove the 'stone of madness,' the supposed lump once blamed for folly; but what he draws out is a flower, with another already lying on the table. A monk and a book-balancing nun round out the absurd operation. The Gothic inscription names the dupe Lubbert Das, a byword for a gullible fool, and begs the master to cut the stone out fast. Bosch sets the satire in a tondo within a wide, calm landscape, mocking the swindler and the credulous who trust him in equal measure.