A queen dressed in blue, representing mercury, in a crowned alchemical flask. Watercolour painting by E.A. Ibbs.

Ibbs, Edith A.

Date:: 1900-1909

Reference:: 38826i

Part of:: Splendor solis

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About this work

Also known as

Previous title, replaced June 2023 : A queen dressed in blue, representing mercury, in a crowned alchemical flask. Watercolour painting.

Description

The queen is aureoled by a rainbow of yellow and blue. Lennep comments that the original manuscript includes an inscription: "Filius natus ex me, major est me" (the son born of me is greater than me). Compare with the following drawing ( Wellcome Library catalogue no. 38827i), of the new king

Publication/Creation

1900-1909

Physical description

1 painting : watercolour ; image 42.3 x 22.1 cm.

Series

Splendor solis

Contributors

Creator/production credits

Painted by Edith Annie Ibbs (1863-1937) on commission from the secretary of the Historical Medical Exhibition organized by Henry S. Wellcome (C.J.S. Thompson), ca. 1907, and subsequently exhibited in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, Wigmore Street, London

References note

For detailed information on this series, cf. J. van Lennep, L'alchimie, Brussels 1984, pp. 110-129

This image is one of a sub-series in the 'Splendor solis', showing crowned alchemical flasks containing symbols of the various stages of the Great Work. In the original manuscript, scenes of symbolically relevant activities in village life are shown outside the image, along with an astronomical sign at the top

Reference

Wellcome Collection 38826i

Reproduction note

After: Salomon Trismosin, Splendor solis, 1582, British Library, Harley ms. 3469