The Alchemist

c. 1558

Philip Galle

Artist, Netherlandish, 1537 - 1612

Hieronymus Cock

Publisher, Netherlandish, 1518 - 1570

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    engraving

  • Credit Line

    Print Purchase Fund (Rosenwald Collection)

  • Dimensions

    sheet (trimmed to plate mark): 31.9 x 45 cm (12 9/16 x 17 11/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1970.13.3

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    New Hollstein, no. 391, State i/iii

Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1974

  • Europe in Torment: 1450-1550, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, 1974, no. 24, repro.

2000

  • "Writing on Hands: Memory and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe, 1470-1700", The Trout Gallery, Dickinson College, Carlisle, 2000, no. 69.

  • The Fantastic in Renaissance Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2000.

Bibliography

1908

  • Bastelaer, Rene van. Les estampes de Peter Bruegel l'ancien. Brussels: G. van Oest et Cie, 1908.

1993

  • The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700. (Philips Galle, Manfred Sellink and Marjolein Leesberg, authors). Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive, 1996-, no. 391, state i/iii.

2000

  • Sherman, Claire Richter. Writing on Hands: Memory and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe. Exh. cat. The Trout Gallery, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, 2000, no. 69.

Inscriptions

upper left, in image, in plate: Brueghel Inue; lower left, in image, in plate: H COCK EXCVD CVM PRIVILEGIO; lower margin, in plate: DEBENT IGNARI RES FERRE ET POST OPERARI / IVS LAPIDIS CARI VILIS SED DENIQ3 RARI / VNICA RES CERTA VILIS SED VBIQ3 REPERTA // QVATVOR INSERTA NATVRIS IN PRINCIPALIS / SED TALIS QVALIS REPERTITVR VBIQ3 LOCALIS. (The ignorant should suffer things and labor accordingly. The law of the precious, cheap but at the same time rare stone is the only certain, worthless but everywhere discovered thing. With four natures stuffed into the cloud it is no mineral that is unique somewhere but is of such a kind as to be found everywhere.) [translation from Nadine Orenstein, ed., Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001, p. 170.]

Wikidata ID

Q65512416

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