From the exhibition
Den Geklisteerde Fransman bij Thejn, door de Ongeaeren Apothecker op Order van den Duitschen Medicus (The Plastered Frenchman at the Barber-Surgeon, by Order of the German Physician)
· 1742

This Dutch etching depicts a Frenchman subjected to comic medical torture—bloodletting, leeches, and aggressive treatments—by German and other practitioners. The print exemplifies 18th-century satirical printmaking's use of bodily humor during European conflicts. Such prints descended from Hogarth's moral narratives and fed directly into the political cartoon tradition of Gillray and Rowlandson, establishing visual satire as popular propaganda. The exaggerated figures and slapstick violence prefigured modern comic art's use of grotesque bodies for political mockery.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/