Painted alchemists : early modern artistry and experiment in the work of Thomas Wijck / Elisabeth Berry Drago.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berry Drago, Elisabeth, author.

Series:

Amsterdam studies in the Dutch golden age.

Amsterdam studies in the Dutch golden age

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wyck, Thomas, approximately 1616-1677.

Wyck, Thomas.

Alchemy--History.

Alchemy.

Alchemy in art.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (281 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2019.

Language Note:

In English.

Biography/History:

Elisabeth Berry Drago studies interconnected histories of art and science in the Dutch Golden Age. She received her PhD from the University of Delaware, and is a former Fellow of the Science History Institute in Philadelphia.

Summary:

Thomas Wijck's painted alchemical laboratories were celebrated in his day as "artful" and "ingenious." They fell into obscurity along with their subject, as alchemy came to be viewed as an occult art or a fool's errand. But these unusual pictures challenge our understanding of early modern alchemy-and of the deeper relationship between chemical workshops and the artists who represented them. The work of artists, like the work of alchemists, contained intellectual-creative and manual-material aspects. Both alchemists and artists claimed a special status owing to their creative powers. Wijck's formation of an artistic and professional identity around alchemical themes reveals his desire to explore this curious territory, and ultimately to demonstrate art's superior claims to knowledge and mastery over nature. This book explores one artist's transformation of alchemy and its materials into a reputation for virtuosity-and what his work can teach us about the experimental early modern world.

Contents:

Curiosity and convention

Authority and secrecy

Bruegel, Stradanus, and beyond : pictorial precedents

Thomas Wijck, "artful" and "ingenious"

The young Wijck

An expanding market

Wijck's reputation

Wijck's alchemical artisans

Chronology

The alchemist as paterfamilias

The alchemist as artisan

The alchemist as scholar

An experiment in Haarlem

Practical alchemy in Wijck's networks

Van Eyck, Goltzius, and the model of the experimental artist

Representing alchemy in Haarlem

The artist's laboratories abroad

Alchemy, magic, and "secrets" in Rome and Naples

Elite alchemy and experiment in London

The "foreign" alchemist

The master of nature

Oil painting and the art-alchemy debate

Making and representing pigments

Alchemy, artistry, and identity

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 20 Nov 2020).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-003-70103-5

90-485-3777-0

9781003701033

OCLC:

1088722741