Mirror of the Whole of Nature

A hand from the clouds holds Nature on a chain, who in turn holds Art on a chain of its own.

Work: Utriusque Cosmi Historia (Tomus Primus), 1617
Artist / creator: Robert Fludd
Origin & date: Early 17th century (1617–1618, Oppenheim)
Held by: Wellcome Collection, London

Format

The full-resolution color-managed file — yours to print, study, and keep.

Size

Sized to protect print quality — this scan’s resolution supports sizes up to 12x16 cleanly.

$24.00

The story

A hand emerges from a radiant cloud, holding a chain that descends to a nude female figure, Natura, standing atop a great wheel of concentric spheres. A second chain runs from her wrist down to an ape crouched on the earth, holding a compass. This is Fludd’s diagram of hierarchy: God originates, Nature (the world’s intermediary soul) governs the visible creation, and human Art only imitates what Nature already imitates from God, one step further removed from the source. Watch for the ape gripping the compass, a period visual pun on the old tag "ars simia naturae," art as nature’s ape, incapable of true invention. It is the single most reproduced image from Fludd’s cosmology, later borrowed loosely by others as shorthand for the "great chain of being," though Fludd’s own point was narrower and more specific.

About this reproduction

Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from Wellcome Collection, London’s open-access release.
Printed to order on archival cotton-rag stock, pigment inks rated 100+ years.
Color-managed to the source scan.
Ships in 5–8 business days; satisfaction guaranteed.

Image courtesy of the Wellcome Collection, London, licensed CC BY 4.0.

In situ