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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileAlchemical scene showing two putti holding philosopher's stone containing image of Hermes, below which are a man and a woman kneeling before furnace where transmutation is to take place LCCN96504158
This black-and-white engraving is divided into two registers. In the upper register, two muscular putti float among clouds beneath a radiant, anthropomorphic sun, supporting a large, almond-shaped mandorla containing a nude, youthful figure of Hermes carrying a caduceus. In the lower register, a man in 17th-century attire and a woman in a modest gown kneel in profile, hands clasped, facing a brick furnace positioned between them. The furnace features a central teardrop emblem, a funnel-shaped vessel, and a small fire burning in the hearth below, flanked by two circular empty frames and two arched window motifs.
This image is Plate 2 from the *Mutus Liber* (Silent Book), a famous 17th-century alchemical work entirely composed of symbolic engravings without explanatory text, intended to guide the practitioner through the stages of the Great Work.
II
Mutus Liber
This print is the second plate of the 1677/1702 alchemical grimoire Mutus Liber.
Object
engraving
laid paper
Baroque
French
emblem
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
1171 × 1536 px
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview on April 20, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.