Sir John Medina's portraits of the surgeons of Edinburgh.

THE sEr OF oval portraits of members of the old Incorporation of Surgeons which hangs in the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh was painted by Sir John Medina some time between about 1695 and 1710. Consideration of the general affairs of the Surgeons of Edinburgh in the late seventeenth century, and comparison with similar collections elsewhere suggests that these portraits were probably commissioned to mark the opening in 1697 of the New Hall and Anatomical Theatre, and are most unusual in constituting, like Kneller's more famous Kit-cat series, an extensive set painted to be-hung together as a set, and al painted from life. Viewed from a sociological angle they testify to the surgeons' quest for improved status within the medical profession. Stylistic analysis suggests that the portraits may not all be by the same hand, while scrutiny of the inscriptions which they bear provides some clues to their chronology.