Transmutations: Alchemy in Art: Selected Works from the Eddleman and Fisher Collections at the Chemical Heritage Foundation [Paperback]

Lawrence M Principe (Author), Lloyd De Witt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2005

Alchemy is one of the most evocative subjects in the history of science. Alchemy made important contributions to the development of modern science while firing popular imagination so strongly that portrayals of the alchemist at work pervaded the arts. The more celebrated goals of alchemy, like transmutation of base metals into gold, still tease and tantalize. Transmutations offers a thoughtful look at the role of the alchemist in the 17th and 18th centuries, as depicted in a selection of paintings from the Eddleman and Fisher Collections housed at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. This beautiful full-color book reveals much about the beginnings of chemistry as a profession.

Product Details

• Paperback: 45 pages
• Publisher: Chemical Heritage Foundation (June 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941901327
• ISBN-13: 978-0941901321
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,603,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely images, October 10, 2007

By 

Albert Hand "student-teacher of alchemical arts" (northern CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Transmutations: Alchemy in Art: Selected Works from the Eddleman and Fisher Collections at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (Paperback)

This is a great little book. Beautiful images of alchemical laboratories and alchemists that give a tantalizing glimpse into the possibilities of imaginative attitudes toward alchemy and its practitioners during the period. These are not the puzzling diagrams and bizarre symbols that characterize alchemical emblem texts, but fine art treatments of the subject by painters rather than the alchemists themselves. We get a peek into the alchemical laboratory brought to life and light by skilled painters--in fact certain great and notable names. Unlike most examples of alchemical art there is no difficulty in interpreting the images.

Any library or bookshelf dealing with alchemical art would be incomplete without this book.

Occultists and spiritual alchemists may find these images to be of aesthetic and historical interest, but this is more relevant to students of the history of art and contains little information pertaining directly to esotericism. Of course practical alchemists will be delighted to see the instruments of the art in use more dynamically than in most texts.

Hopefully these pieces will inspire the reader to seek out the collection, which is one of the most important holdings of alchemical material, especially in America. All serious students of alchemy should make a pilgrimage.