Hyman Bloom admired works by artists such as Soutine ("Carcass of Beef", 1924) and Rembrandt ("Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp", 1632; "The Slaughtered Ox", 1655) that explored similar themes. He called the colors of a decaying corpse he had seen in a morgue "harrowing" and yet "beautiful...iridescent and pearly." Many of Bloom's paintings feature rabbis, usually holding the Torah. According to Bloom, his intentions were more artistic than religious. He began questioning his Jewish faith early in life, and painted rabbis, he claimed, because that was what he knew. Over the course of his career he produced dozens of paintings of
Observationes Medicae (Tulp) popular, that a hundred years later a translated version was published. Professor Tulp never wanted to publish in Dutch for fear of hypochondriac behavior. He was very against quacks and self-medication and it was for this reason that he worked on the Amsterdam Pharmacopoeia. This second version therefore, would have been against his wishes. However, the book was prefaced by a long "lykoratie", or ode to his memory, in which Ludovicus Wolzogen explains what a wonderful man Tulp was, and everything that he did for the city of Amsterdam and medicine in general. He claims to have made an accurate