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1 painting : oil on glass ; sight 84.7 x 47.8 cm

Mercury. Oil painting.

She seems to stir a potion in a jar while pointing to a passage in a book open on her lap. Centre, an alcove or fire place in which are placed three animal skulls (an ox, a dog and a bird); foreground, the skull of a ram. Left and background, other objects

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 47 x 57 cm

A witch. Oil painting.

An alchemist. Oil painting.

1 painting : oil on paper ; sheet 26.6 x 41 cm

A skull. Oil painting.

1 painting : oil on wood ; wood 24.5 x 18.5 cm

An apothecary. Oil painting.

1 painting : oil on glass ; sight 84.5 x 48 cm

Chemistry. Oil painting.

Oil painting frame

Brewing. Oil painting.

1 painting : oil on wood ; wood 42.5 x 35 cm

Alchemists (?). Oil painting.

Apotheosis of an ecclesiastic. Oil painting.

1 painting : oil on canvas laid down on wood ; wood 35.3 x 28.4 cm

The interior of a pharmacy. Oil painting.

Orphan girls entering the refectory of a hospital. 
The painting shows the historic role of the hospital in bringing up and sustaining orphans and other needy people of all kinds. The Foundling Hospital established in London in 1739 is an example of a hospital that fulfilled that role. Much earlier, Domenico di Bartolo's frescoes in Siena had included a scene of the reception, bringing up, and marriage of girls entrusted to the hospital of that city. In the present painting the uniformed girls enter the refectory through an arched staircase on the left that Cayley Robinson derived from Edward Burne-Jones's painting The golden stairs (1876-1880: Tate Britain): the serpentine line which it initiates continues in the next painting in the pair.

Oil Painting by Cayley Robinson

The fountain of life. Oil painting.

1 painting : oil on wood ; wood 14.5 x 14.5 cm

Tobias Whitaker. Oil painting.

1 painting : oil on wood ; wood 20.7 x 17.6 cm

Edward Jenner. Oil painting.

An explosion in a laboratory. Oil painting.

Four grotesque dwarfish figures: a hunchbacked man and an old midwife help a woman give birth, producing eggs, while on the left a woman boils a donkey in a cauldron to produce gruel for the mother. In the foreground, babies break out of the eggs: possibly a parody of Leonardo da Vinci's painting of Leda and the swan

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 64 x 76 cm

A grotesque accouchement. Oil painting.

The Dance of death originates in mediaeval plays and folk rituals performed on the Feast of the Holy Innocents (28 December), and in funeral sermons. In the most popular version, Death (in the form of a skeleton) dances in succession with people representing particular social ranks (Pope, emperor, king, lawyer, peasant, etc.) and takes away each in turn, demonstrating that nobody however exalted in this life, can escape death. Conversely, nobody, however humble in this life, is in the end worse off than the rich and mighty. The theme lent itself to long mural paintings in which the entire sequence is depicted: examples (now destroyed) were the walls of the cemetery of the Holy Innocents in Paris, 1425, or the of the Predigerkirche in Basel, ca. 1440. It could also be painted in the bays within a cloister, where the monks and pilgrims would pass each scene in turn as they walked around the cloister (as in Old St Paul's Cathedral, London) In 1485, when printed books were still a novelty, the Dance of Death was first published as a series of woodcuts (to be succeeded later by engravings), in which each individual scene occupied a separate page of a book. The vivid woodcuts of this subject by Hans Holbein (1538) were studied throughout Europe. As a result most people viewing the Dance of Death would be using media in which they could only see the episodes one at a time In the seventeenth century, painters and print makers created versions of the Dance of Death which represented all the episodes in one painting or engraving, often together with other motifs such as skulls and clocks added to reinforce the message. In Germany, five such engravings are known from the 17th and 18th centuries, and many paintings with the same general composition are known from churches in Poland, Croatia, Germany, Slovakia and elsewhere. The paintings and prints have many variations from each other, which may eventually permit their origins to be known through a family tree of earlier versions and copies. Many of them were commissioned by the order of Observant Franciscans (Order of Friars Minor) for the sacristies or waiting rooms of their churches. The present painting in the Wellcome Library is one these, and another, larger version is in the Church of Saint Bernardino of Siena in Kraków

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 72 x 55 cm

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Mercury. Oil painting.

A witch. Oil painting.

An alchemist. Oil painting.

An alchemist. Oil painting.

A skull. Oil painting.

An apothecary. Oil painting.

Chemistry. Oil painting.

Oil painting frame

Brewing. Oil painting.

An alchemist. Oil painting.

Alchemists (?). Oil painting.

Apotheosis of an ecclesiastic. Oil painting.

The interior of a pharmacy. Oil painting.

Oil Painting by Cayley Robinson

The fountain of life. Oil painting.

Tobias Whitaker. Oil painting.

Edward Jenner. Oil painting.

The fountain of life. Oil painting.

An explosion in a laboratory. Oil painting.

A grotesque accouchement. Oil painting.

The dance of death. Oil painting.

Life and death. Oil painting.

Life and death. Oil painting.

A philosopher reading. Oil painting.

Apotheosis of an ecclesiastic. Oil painting.

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Wellcome uses cookies.

Mercury. Oil painting.

A witch. Oil painting.

An alchemist. Oil painting.

An alchemist. Oil painting.

A skull. Oil painting.

An apothecary. Oil painting.

Chemistry. Oil painting.

Oil painting frame

Brewing. Oil painting.

An alchemist. Oil painting.

Alchemists (?). Oil painting.

Apotheosis of an ecclesiastic. Oil painting.

The interior of a pharmacy. Oil painting.

Oil Painting by Cayley Robinson

The fountain of life. Oil painting.

Tobias Whitaker. Oil painting.

Edward Jenner. Oil painting.

The fountain of life. Oil painting.

An explosion in a laboratory. Oil painting.

A grotesque accouchement. Oil painting.

The dance of death. Oil painting.

Life and death. Oil painting.

Life and death. Oil painting.

A philosopher reading. Oil painting.

Apotheosis of an ecclesiastic. Oil painting.

Stay in the know

Wellcome collectionWellcome Collection

Finding us:

Opening times:

Today's opening times

Wellcome collection