 The artist Jan van der Straet painted a scene of a wealthy man receiving treatment for syphilis with the tropical wood guaiacum sometime around 1580 . The title of the work is " Preparation and Use of Guayaco for Treating Syphilis " . That the artist chose to include this image in a series of works celebrating the New World indicates how important a treatment , however ineffective , for syphilis was to the European elite at that time . The richly colored and detailed work depicts four servants preparing the concoction while a physician looks on , hiding something behind his back while the hapless patient drinks . 
