The Crowned Head Beneath the Fire

Fire burns in a dish above a funnel, and below it a crowned head looks up out of a great jar.

Work: Ymage de Vie, traictant des secrez des philosophes sur la fleur d'alkemie (Wellcome MS 446)
Artist / creator: Unknown French scribes; text attributed to Raymond Lull
Origin & date: France, 15th century; French and Latin
Held by: Wellcome Collection, London (MS 446)

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$24.00

The story

At the top of the page a dish holds a heap of red flames. Under it a second bowl and a funnel drain straight down into a big glazed jar, and out of the jar's mouth a crowned head looks up, only the face and crown above the rim. A line of French beside the funnel names the crown, couronne des couronnes. This is one of the several full-page drawings in the Wellcome's fifteenth-century Ymage de Vie, a French and Latin book of alchemical processes credited to Raymond Lull. The king sealed in the jar was a familiar way of picturing a substance shut in and cooked. Here he waits beneath the whole stack of heat, wearing the one touch of gold on the page.

About this reproduction

Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from Wellcome Collection, London (MS 446)’s open-access release.
Printed to order on archival cotton-rag stock, pigment inks rated 100+ years.
Color-managed to the source scan.
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Image courtesy of the Wellcome Collection, London, licensed CC BY 4.0.

In situ