This week's sculpture is inspired by William Shakespeare's son-in-law, Dr. John Hall, who was the physician of Stratford-upon-Avon in the early seventeenth century. It shows a physician of that period consulting a worried looking patient.
This sculpture, although made in the 1980's, has an extra link to the Hall family as it was carved from the wood of a lime tree in the garden at Hall's Croft, which was Susanna and John Hall's home in Stratford-upon-Avon.
We have some idea what this scene might have looked like form contemporary images of physicians, such as this oil painting of a doctor 'casting the water' (inspecting the urine) of a patient.
This was painted in the mid seventeenth century by Osias Dyck and is currently displayed in Hall's Croft. Discover more information about Hall's Croft.