An alchemist in scholar's clothes sits in contemplation at his desk, bent over an open text with quill in hand. His workroom is cluttered with texts and earthenware vessels, a large globe, trunks and barrels. At right,…

This etching by Anton Joseph von Prenner reproduces a painting by the German painter Christopher Paudiss, known as Baudiz. Working by the glow of candlelight, a seated man studies an anatomical text at a desk…

Seated at a table, a well-dressed medical alchemist examines a flask he holds aloft. Opposite, a young man and woman anxiously await his diagnosis. Urinoscopy, or the visual examination of urine for diagnosis, was a…

In this small copy in the style of David Teniers II (artist unknown), an elderly, bearded alchemist closely reads an open book with an expression of absorbed contemplation. He is seated at his desk beside a skull and…

A bearded alchemist wearing a fur-trimmed top coat and cap is carefully weighing ingredients with a balance. On top of his table is an exotic carpet covered with papers, a copper pitcher, and ceramic jar. Resting on a…

An alchemist takes the pulse of an elegant female patient, inside a cavernous chamber decorated with fine paintings and luxurious furnishings. Above the mantle hangs a painted hunting scene which resembles the work of…

This engraving, by the French printmaker Jean Baptiste Fosseyeux, reproduces an original painting by Gerrit Dou. The work, titled "The Dropsical Woman," shows a young but finely-robed doctor examining the urine of a…

This profile portrait claims to provide a likeness of Paracelsus, the famed Swiss-German physician, botanist, and alchemist. A champion of chemical medicines, Paracelsus criticized established medical institutions for…

A bearded man reading a book is standing in a great vaulted interior. A large window illuminates the room with warm daylight, reflecting against the glassware sparsely placed on upper shelves. At right, a long-necked…

A man dressed in peasant garb holds a gold scale in right hand and reaches with left for red substance in open paper packet. At left through window are building roofs; the light illuminates a dark, cluttered workshop…

This small painting on metal is a copy of Gerrit Dou's (also known as Gerrit Douw or Dow) [artist unknown] popular dentist scene in Dresden. Through the illusionistic frame of a large window, we see a dentist in a red…

In this copy after Gerrit Dou's (also known as Gerrit Douw or Dow) popular "The School Master" composition (artist unknown), the old man at the window niche sharpens his pen while his pupils are busy at work in the…

The scene, from an episode in Samuel Butler's mock-heroic epic, "Hudibras," shows the title character as he confronts the astrologer Sidrophel in a clandestine laboratory. Angry at the truths of his past which the…

In a small workshop a medical alchemist tends to the foot of a seated patient while the man's wife and child look on. At left, an assistant grinds a substance--likely a medicine or salve--in a small mortar and pestle.…

This portrait of the famed alchemist John Dee (1527-1609) shows a bearded, elderly man attired in the fashion of the Elizabethan court, complete with a sober scholar's cap and a starched collar ruff. It closely…

This lithograph by Carl Straub, after a painting of the same subject by David Teniers II, shows the interior of a chemist's laboratory with a man seated in front of a furnace. He tends a glowing fire with a pair of…

This dark and eerie scene centers on the seated figure of an alchemist, pausing as he works a pair of bellows to stoke a fire. Dwarfed by his enormous chair and the looming masonry furnace at left, the alchemist peers…

An alchemist in a heavy, fur-trimmed robe and a sober scholar's cap peers closely at a glass flask in the light of an open window. Through his spectacles he examines the liquid contents. On the table at his elbow, a…

A man in red skull cap and coat furred at collar and cuff sits with open book on his lap, body facing left with head turned right, in a green tattered velvet chair. At right, a cloth-covered table topped with a skull.…

In this fanciful scene of an alchemist's workroom, a bespectacled alchemist leans over to examine the contents of a bubble-like glass receiver. At left, an enormous alembic sits distilling over a furnace, extending a…