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An alchemist's laboratory inhabited by monkeys: to the right they are shown calling at the poorhouse, destitute after their obsessive, fruitless experiments. Etching by P. van der Borcht, ca. 1580.
- Borcht, Petrus van der, 1545-1608.
- Reference
- 17512i
- Pictures
- Online
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Credit: An alchemist's laboratory inhabited by monkeys: to the right they are shown calling at the poorhouse, destitute after their obsessive, fruitless experiments. Etching by P. van der Borcht, ca. 1580. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark
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About this work
Description
Brinkman, loc. cit., explores the connections between the prints of an alchemist by Pieter Bruegel (1558) and by Maarten de Vos (1570), and this print by Van der Borcht, which reconstructs the scene as a singerie. He concludes that the present is the later, and loses some of the satirical symbolism of the first two, such as the alchemist throwing his last coin into his experimenting apparatus
Physical description
1 print : etching ; platemark 19.6 x 28 cm
Contributors
Lettering
Docta etiam sanos plantis haurite liquores, / Queis aegro medicam sedula praestet opem. Pour guarir maladie et tout mal qu'endommage, / Ils distilent ici diuerse herbe en breuuage ...
References note
A. Brinkman, De alchemist in de prentkunst, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1982, pp. 41-43
Lettering note
Lettering repeated in middle Dutch
Bears number: 11
Reference
Wellcome Library no. 17512i
Type/Technique
Languages
- Latin
- French
- Dutch
Where to find it
Location Status Access Closed stores