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Alchemical Art
In an effort to conceal their sacred wisdom as well as keep it out of the wrong hands, alchemists used a highly symbolic, complex vocabulary in their art and writing. The images illustrated in this web site give a sampling of some beautiful paintings and woodcuts created by alchemists to convey instructions and procedures for doing laboratory work. These are visual "recipes" that when properly translated reveal various operations for changing the conditions of mind needed in transmuting lead into gold.
Many famous authors and artists were drawn to the imagery of the alchemical opus. Among these are the following:
Literature
- Goethe's Faust is a masterpiece of alchemical literature.
- The Holy Bible is filled with many allusions to alchemy.
- Rumi, the 5th century Persian poet, often refers to alchemy as a means of increasing the flames of love and passion. In one poem he makes it perfectly clear, "You are the master alchemist/Through your loving/all opposites unite."
- Longfellow's poem, "Hermes Trismegistus," lauds the great alchemist who authored the Emerald Tablet, considered by many as the greatest alchemical formula ever written.
- Ben Jonson's play, "The Alchemists," features a homunclus [a synthetic being created in the alchemical laboratory] who plays a leading role.
- Many more references to alchemy can be found in Virgil, Homer and Shakespeare.
Art
- Pieter Brueghel the Elder, An Alchemist at work, mid 16th century.
- Jan van der Straet, Distillatio, late 16th century.
- David Teniers, The Alchemist, c. 1645.
- Jan Steen, The Village Alchemist, late 17th century.
- Pietro Longhi, The Alchemist, 1661.
- Heindrick Heerschop, The Alchemist's Experiment takes Fire, 17th c.
- Joseph Wright of Derby, The Alchymist in Search of the Philosopher's Stone discovers Phosphorus, 18th century.
- Sir William Fettes Douglas, The Alchemist, 19th century.
- David Scott, Paracelsus Lecturing on the Elixir Vitae, 19th century.
- Many more alchemical themes can be found in the works of Rembrandt, Durer and Hieronymus Bosch
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