This fine portrait shows the physician Sir Thomas Baines in his study, which is both richly appointed and austere in tone. He is shown reading a copy of Plato’s works, with a copy of Aristotle nearby. Baines studied at Christ’s College, Cambridge in the 1640s before travelling to Italy to study anatomy, where he was created doctor of physic at Padua. In May 1660 he was elected a fellow extraordinary of the College of Physicians, London and in 1663 he was elected an original Fellow of the Royal Society. He would have been just as much at home in the anatomy theatre as in a study.