A black man with a red head and right arm emerges from a foul stream into a landscape where a winged woman is waiting for him with a red garment; representing the transformations of the alchemical work from corruption to perfection. Watercolour painting by E.A. Ibbs.
- Ibbs, Edith A.
- Date:
- 1900-1909
- Reference:
- 38738i
- Part of:
- Splendor solis
- Pictures
- Online
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Also known as
Previous title, replaced June 2023 : A black man with a red head and right arm emerges from a foul stream into a landscape where a winged woman is waiting for him with a red garment; representing the transformations of the alchemical work from corruption to perfection. Watercolour painting.
Description
Lennep quotes the original text, which describes "un être condamnée aux cruels supplices d'un cloaque, paraissait aussi noir qu'un Maure, n'épargnant rien de ses forces pour délivrer son corps condamné aux infectes prisons de ce bourbier fangeux et plein d'immondices. Comme chacun restait sourd à sa complainte, il n'aspirait plus qu'à la Parque inhumaine, lorsqu'une jeune beauté plein d'humanité, vint à son secours." As well as being called a "moor" in this text, other alchemical texts refer to the figure as an Ethiopian (see Lennep, op. cit. p. 119). The text goes on to tell how the woman clothes the man in the robe, lifts him up and takes him with her to heaven
Publication/Creation
1900-1909
Physical description
1 painting : watercolour ; image 40 x 25.2 cm.
Series
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
Reference
Wellcome Collection 38738i
Reproduction note
After: Salomon Trismosin, Splendor solis, 1582, British Library, Harley ms. 3469
Type/Technique
Where to find it
Location Status Access Closed stores