Nicolaes Maes: The regents of the Barber surgeons-guild of Amsterdam (1680)

(Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands)

A barber surgeon was a  medical practitioner of medieval Europe. Their job included bloodletting, pulling teeth, amputating limbs and cutting hair (!). Most barbers were united in a guild which took care of a proper education of future guild-members and protected the common interests of the guild-members. The persons on this painting form the board-of-directors of the Barber surgeons-guild in Amsterdam. The names of the regents are: 

- Jan Coenerding (1632-1705), master-surgeon in Amsterdam,  surgeon at the Dutch Admiralty, for the poor, the Old Men's Home in Amsterdam; regent of the barber-surgeonsguild in Amsterdam, regent of the theater in  Amsterdam, poet
- Pieter Muyser (1624-1699), master-surgeon in Amsterdam, regent of the barber-surgeonsguild in Amsterdam 
- Isaac Hartman (1632-1684), master-surgeon in Amsterdam, regent of the barber-surgeonsguild in Amsterdam
- Gerrit Verhul (1639-1683), master-surgeon in Amsterdam, regent of the barber-surgeonsguild in Amsterdam
- Allardus Cyprianus (1629-1683), surgeon, stone-cutter (= Lithotomy)
- Govart Bidloo (1649-1713), master-surgeon te Amsterdam, regent of the barber-surgeonsguild, professor at the univerity of Leiden, court physician of prince William III of Orange, poet and playwright

Govart Bidloo is the most famous one of the group, he is sitting in the front with a brown jacket. He was the personal physician of William III of Orange-Nassau, Dutch stadholder and king of England, and was promoted to doctor medicinae in 1682. His name is usually connected with his book "Anatomia Humani Corporis", an anatomical book of 1684. This group formed the board-of-directors of the guild in the period of september 1679 to september 1680 and this group-portrait was propably painted at the end of this period.