How to Cite

Jäggy, Christoph: Goldener König und schwarzer Wolf: Alchemistische Bildsprache und Laborpraxis, in Wagner, Berit and Gannon, Corinna (Eds.): Opus magnum: Matthäus Merian d.Ä. und die Bebilderung der Alchemie, Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net-ART-Books, 2024, p. 281–286. https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1311.c19545

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https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1311
ISBN 978-3-98501-245-9 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-98501-246-6 (Hardcover)

Published

05/08/2024

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Authors

Corinna Gannon, Christoph Jäggy

Goldener König und schwarzer Wolf

Alchemistische Bildsprache und Laborpraxis

As will become evident in the following contribution on emblem 24 from Michael Maier’s Atalanta fugiens (1618), alchemical processes were often masked by an allegorical and mythoalchemical cover in order to encrypt the secret knowledge. The image created by Matthäus Merian the Elder alludes to a frequently performed metallurgical and alchemical process: the purification of gold by antimony. This was also reenacted by the authors which makes the origin of alchemical imagery plausible.