This profile portrait claims to provide a likeness of Paracelsus, the famed Swiss-German physician, botanist, and alchemist. A champion of chemical medicines, Paracelsus criticized established medical institutions for what he viewed as an over-reliance on the Galenic medicine of antiquity and argued for an experimental new vision of medical practice. Viewed from his left side, this portrait shows Paracelsus as a man of advanced years, with tonsure-like balding and a thoughtful, care-worn face. He is simply dressed in a black coat tied at the neck.