A king presiding over a massacre of infants; soldiers pour the blood of the infants into a boiling vat; probably representing the stage of 'putrefaction' in the alchemical process. Coloured etching after etching, ca. 17th century.

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38187i
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view A king presiding over a massacre of infants; soldiers pour the blood of the infants into a boiling vat; probably representing the stage of 'putrefaction' in the alchemical process. Coloured etching after etching, ca. 17th century.

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A king presiding over a massacre of infants; soldiers pour the blood of the infants into a boiling vat; probably representing the stage of 'putrefaction' in the alchemical process. Coloured etching after etching, ca. 17th century. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Description

L. Dixon gives three alchemical interpretations of this scene: 1. "a reference to the extraction of two natures from the prima materia" (Poisson). 2. "a symbol of the preparation of silver" (de Givry). 3. a symbol of "the stage of 'putrefactio' or 'calcination', wherein the ingredients were heated to the point of 'death', or oxidation, in their vessel" (ibid. p. xxx). The sun and the moon bathe themselves in the blood in a ritual of solution and ablution, perhaps also alluding to the 'chemical wedding' between man and woman

Publication/Creation

[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]

Physical description

1 print : etching, with watercolour ; platemark 20.5 x 14.8 cm

Lettering

Bears number: 7

References note

Jacques van Lennep, Alchimie, Brussels 1984, pp. 134-144

Reference

Wellcome Collection 38187i

Reproduction note

The Livre takes its inspiration from a text by Nicolas Flamel (ca. 1330-1417) first published in France in 1612, then in England in 1624. Flamel tells of how a book written by one Abraham the Jew fell into his hands and goes on to describe its illustrations, which he does not attempt to reproduce. Only in 1672, in W. Salmon's edition of the book, did the images come to be actualised. See: Nicolas Flamel, His exposition of the hieroglyphicall figures (1624), ed. Laurinda Dixon, London 1994, p. 8ff.

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