This painting depicts the figures of Cosmas and Damian, the Christian patron saints of medicine, pharmacy, and surgery. These martyrs lived in the third century in the geographical area of modern-day Syria where they travelled together while offering their services as doctors and always refused to take payment for their services. This mark of Christian humility accompanied their miracle cures for ailments such paralysis and blindness, but also when restoring the vitality of countless patients from everyday illnesses. In Mediaeval times, these holy figures became well known for a miracle of leg transplantation. The story was circulated widely in Jacobus de Voragine’s anthology of the lives of saints, the ‘Legenda Aurea’ (the Golden Legend) which entered circulation in the 13th century. His Latin translation of Greek legends is the first to feature a description of the grafted leg as Black, with the transplantation occurring between a recently deceased Black man and a white verger. The scene is represented in numerous artworks, including the ‘Miracle of a Black Leg’ (ca. 1370-75) by the Master of the Rinuccini Chapel, Matteo di Pacino. Given that the history of medicine is filled with violence and racism, this representation showing a Black body serving as substitution for a white one is a strong example of racialised medical practice much before modern times. In his contemporary painting, Bengtsson shows the saints soaring upwards while being enveloped in the folds of vegetation and flowers, but most of their body is shown in an outline of gold leaf while only their legs appear painted.