图片文件尺寸: 5000×6507 px
炼金术士在寻找魔法石-德比的约瑟夫·赖特
-The Alchemist, in Search of the Philosopher’s Stone, discovers Phosphorus, and prays for the successful conclusion of his operation, as was the custom of the ancient chymical astrologers
Joseph Wright, oil on canvas, exhibited 1771, reworked and dated 1795.
Drawing upon such traditions, Wright’s alchemist kneels in awe before a flask from which a jet of phosphorus gas is released ‘and prays for the successful conclusion of his operation.’ Behind him two assistants, until recently engaged in extraction of lead from lead ore, stare on or point in amazement. Phosphorus was first discovered in 1676 and it is perhaps this event that Wright depicts here, the alchemist and his assistants’ ambiguous costume and gothic setting conveying some sense of a historical past.
