Benjamin West

In this scene we meet the Greek anatomist and royal physician Erasistratus employed by king Seleukos of Syria for curing his incurable son Antiochus. The king himself sits in a melancholic pose, holding his sons head. Beside the bed where Antiochus rests stands the physician Erasistratus. When one of Seleukos young wives Stratonice enters the room the patients pulse rushes and his cheeks turns red. Erasistratus comes to the conclusion that the disease Antiochus suffers from is lovesickness. He then convinces king Seleukos that his son would marry Stratonice instead and Antiochus is cured for life. The original painting is in Birmingham Museum of Art.