Original Woodcut - Alchemy (Petrus Bonus)

I have the honor to offer you on behalf of Czech Hermetics another of the woodcuts of my dear and noble friend, the Czech graphic artist D. L.

This wood engraving was made after a woodcut in the alchemical treatise Pretiosa Margarita Novella by Petrus Bonus of Ferrara. This particular edition was edited by Joannes Lacinius and published by the heirs of the famous publisher Aldus Manutius.

This picture is the first in a series of fourteen woodcuts with the theme of the king. In the alchemical context, the king symbolizes the perfect metal, his son represents the semi-perfect one and the servants represent common metals. The subsequent illustrations in the series show the king being murdered by his son, before they both join in putrefaction so that the spiritualized king, who is now penetrated by heavenly influences, might make kings of all his servants. The death of the king of the metals thus fulfils the alchemical axiom about matter, according to which it is necessary to kill the vivid one in order to vivify the dead one. Alchemists traditionally correlated this sentence with the words of Jesus in St. John’s Gospel about the kernel of wheat (John 12:24). Alchemists considered that everything in nature was alive, mineral realm included, and understood death or decomposition as a temporal stage in which everything material undergoes a process necessary for its evolution. They also believed that metals live and mature under the earth. In their philosophy every metal was alive, whether it lay in its ore deposit or went through the mystery of death and resurrection .

This wood engraving was printed by hand on Japanese paper (or on Fabriano paper). The mat is out of hand-printed calico paper by Calico, Praha. The print was stamped by the block-cutter himself (Prague monogrammist D. L.).

Subject of the offer:

New signed hand-made art print of woodcut from one of contemporary Czech Hermetic - Artist (one sheet of nice yellowish paper).
Size of paper sheet: 120×150mm
Size of art-print: 100×90mm.

LAST PIECE IN STOCK.

NOTE: If you have a problem ordering via PayPal, please write me your order by e-mail [email protected] and we will find another solution together.

Share