Two Dragons

Two green dragons, one winged and one wingless, coil together at the foot of a page of French.

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)

Format

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Size

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$24.00

The story

At the foot of a page of French text two green dragons coil around each other, one with wings and one without, each biting at the other. Their bodies are dotted with red, and a column of red flame-like strokes runs up the margin beside them. The text above speaks of mercury and sulphur and the joining of opposites. This page belongs to Ymage de Vie, traictant des secrez des philosophes sur la fleur d'alkemie, a fifteenth-century manuscript in French and Latin written by different hands and bought by the Wellcome at Sotheby's on 12 May 1914. The winged and wingless pair is the oldest shorthand in the art for the volatile and the fixed, locked in a fight neither can win alone.

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