Unlike the prints by Cranach or Holbein, the implication of Dürer’s Temptation of the Idler is that the idleness or laziness of the doctor provides the opportunity for the devil to infiltrate the mind. More than that, the doctor’s trade or profession itself, Dürer seems to be implying, is at fault. Doctors are inclined, in Dürer’s mind, to speculation about the world and such “scientific” speculation is more often than not fruitless, tiring or even outright depressing -- missing the forest for the tress. We see other examples of how Dürer depicts doctors and scientists in his painting Christ Among the Doctors and Melencholia I. 

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