What Painting Is: How to Think about Oil Painting ... - Victoria Vesna
What Painting Is: How to Think about Oil Painting ... - Victoria Vesna What Painting Is: How to Think about Oil Painting ... - Victoria Vesna
THE BEAUTIFUL REDDISH LIGHT OF THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE 181 reflected in a heavenly mirror and concentrated, as phosphorus, in an orb. The plate has all the sources of light that existed before phosphorus: a starry sky, a fire-breathing dragon, an owl and a cat with glowing eyes, fireflies (over the water), and a rising moon; Haephestus, with a flaming crucible; a woman with a tympanum of alchemical fire, ringed by an ouroboros; another woman who has plucked her flaming heart (symbol of Christian faith) from her chest; and Death, carrying a smoking torch. The alchemical ingredients are all there as well: Poseidon, Saturn, and Mars (representing water, lead, and iron); and the symbols for mercury and sulfur on the ground. Some of the lights are natural, and others divine, and all of them have the aura of the unnatural. It is the alchemist’s goal to control and fix the new light, bringing it into the domain of artifice, and letting it burn, as the epigraph says, without flames. With phosphorus, it became possible to preserve lights and shadows, and its discovery prompted some of the first thoughts about photography. 12 There are more synonyms for the Stone than for any other substance; one source lists over six hundred names. 13 Like the materia prima, the stone is the perfection (summa perfectionis) of all creation, and therefore embodies all substances and qualities in their highest forms. It is the “triune microcosm,” the perfect balance of sulfur, mercury, and salt, signifying the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and it also shares the individual properties of every substance. 14 In Khunrath’s language, the Stone is the semi-corporeal near-incarnation of the divine microcosmic soul, and the perfection of the macrocosmic world of substances. Like the monad, it slips like a ghost between insubstantial ideas and forceful reality. Basil Valentine’s book On Natural and Supernatural Things is largely about tincture, another relative of the Stone; he says it has a “supernatural, fleeting, fiery spirit,” so that it does not pertain to the world of visible and tangible nature. But at the same time it can be found in all metals, and so it is partly natural. 15 Everything mundane except the Stone simply exists. Only the Stone can occupy the impossibly thin membrane between the mundane and the transcendental. That is what perfect painting is: neither entirely dull water and stone, nor weightless representation. Not merely a wooden panel coated with cracked and abraded paint, nor entirely a madonna and child. Or as in Rembrandt, not just a slather of oil, nor simply
182 WHAT PAINTING IS FIG. 9 Title page from Johann Heinrich Cohausen, Lumen novum phosphoris accensum (Amsterdam: Joannem Oosterwyk, 1717).
- Page 140 and 141: COAGULATING, COHOBATING, MACERATING
- Page 142 and 143: COAGULATING, COHOBATING, MACERATING
- Page 144 and 145: COAGULATING, COHOBATING, MACERATING
- Page 146 and 147: COAGULATING, COHOBATING, MACERATING
- Page 148 and 149: COAGULATING, COHOBATING, MACERATING
- Page 150 and 151: THE STUDIO AS A KIND OF PSYCHOSIS 1
- Page 152 and 153: THE STUDIO AS A KIND OF PSYCHOSIS 1
- Page 154 and 155: THE STUDIO AS A KIND OF PSYCHOSIS 1
- Page 156 and 157: THE STUDIO AS A KIND OF PSYCHOSIS 1
- Page 158 and 159: THE STUDIO AS A KIND OF PSYCHOSIS 1
- Page 160 and 161: THE STUDIO AS A KIND OF PSYCHOSIS 1
- Page 162 and 163: THE STUDIO AS A KIND OF PSYCHOSIS 1
- Page 164 and 165: THE STUDIO AS A KIND OF PSYCHOSIS 1
- Page 166 and 167: THE STUDIO AS A KIND OF PSYCHOSIS 1
- Page 168 and 169: THE STUDIO AS A KIND OF PSYCHOSIS 1
- Page 170 and 171: THE STUDIO AS A KIND OF PSYCHOSIS 1
- Page 172 and 173: THE STUDIO AS A KIND OF PSYCHOSIS 1
- Page 174 and 175: 7 Steplessness IN THE BEGINNING the
- Page 176 and 177: WHAT PAINTING IS 167 just above the
- Page 178 and 179: WHAT PAINTING IS 169 (6) Set the lo
- Page 180 and 181: WHAT PAINTING IS 171 to unify it. O
- Page 182 and 183: WHAT PAINTING IS 173 image from man
- Page 184 and 185: WHAT PAINTING IS 175 others have th
- Page 186 and 187: 8 The beautiful reddish light of th
- Page 188 and 189: THE BEAUTIFUL REDDISH LIGHT OF THE
- Page 192 and 193: THE BEAUTIFUL REDDISH LIGHT OF THE
- Page 194 and 195: THE BEAUTIFUL REDDISH LIGHT OF THE
- Page 196 and 197: 9 Last words IN THE END, what is pa
- Page 198 and 199: WHAT PAINTING IS 189 social nicetie
- Page 200 and 201: WHAT PAINTING IS 191 reason has to
- Page 202 and 203: WHAT PAINTING IS 193 last fifty yea
- Page 204 and 205: NOTES TO CHAPTER I 195 source is Cr
- Page 206 and 207: NOTES TO CHAPTER I 197 1. On this q
- Page 208 and 209: NOTES TO CHAPTER I 199 1655), 90, 1
- Page 210 and 211: NOTES TO CHAPTER I 201 6. The conce
- Page 212 and 213: NOTES TO CHAPTER I 203 “Gnosticis
- Page 214 and 215: NOTES TO CHAPTER I 205 Antimony, tr
- Page 216 and 217: NOTES TO CHAPTER I 207 1. Emmens, A
- Page 218 and 219: NOTES TO CHAPTER I 209 19. Titus Bu
- Page 220 and 221: 35. A theory of pictorial chaos is
- Page 222 and 223: auriferœ, quam chemiam vocant, 3 v
- Page 224 and 225: NOTES TO CHAPTER I 215 until all (o
- Page 226 and 227: NOTES TO CHAPTER I 217 Make an amal
- Page 228 and 229: NOTES TO CHAPTER I 219 the “alreo
- Page 230 and 231: 32. Ibid., 144. 33. For the mixture
- Page 232 and 233: NOTES TO CHAPTER I 223 “Place 8 g
- Page 234 and 235: J.M. Eder, Quellenschriften zu den
- Page 236 and 237: Abstract Expressionism, 89-94, 153
- Page 238 and 239: lapis lazuli; ultramarine; Woad bod
THE BEAUTIFUL REDDISH LIGHT OF THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE 181<br />
reflected in a heavenly mirror and concentrated, as phosphorus,<br />
in an orb. The plate has all the sources of light that existed before<br />
phosphorus: a starry sky, a fire-breathing dragon, an owl and a<br />
cat with glowing eyes, fireflies (over the water), and a rising<br />
moon; Haephestus, with a flaming crucible; a woman with a<br />
tympanum of alchemical fire, ringed by an ouroboros; another<br />
woman who has plucked her flaming heart (symbol of Christian<br />
faith) from her chest; and Death, carrying a smoking <strong>to</strong>rch. The<br />
alchemical ingredients are all there as well: Poseidon, Saturn, and<br />
Mars (representing water, lead, and iron); and the symbols for<br />
mercury and sulfur on the ground. Some of the lights are natural,<br />
and others divine, and all of them have the aura of the unnatural.<br />
It is the alchemist’s goal <strong>to</strong> control and fix the new light, bringing<br />
it in<strong>to</strong> the domain of artifice, and letting it burn, as the epigraph<br />
says, without flames. With phosphorus, it became possible <strong>to</strong><br />
preserve lights and shadows, and its discovery prompted some<br />
of the first thoughts <strong>about</strong> pho<strong>to</strong>graphy. 12<br />
There are more synonyms for the S<strong>to</strong>ne than for any other<br />
substance; one source lists over six hundred names. 13 Like the<br />
materia prima, the s<strong>to</strong>ne is the perfection (summa perfectionis) of all<br />
creation, and therefore embodies all substances and qualities in<br />
their highest forms. It is the “triune microcosm,” the perfect<br />
balance of sulfur, mercury, and salt, signifying the Father, the<br />
Son, and the Holy Spirit; and it also shares the individual<br />
properties of every substance. 14 In Khunrath’s language, the<br />
S<strong>to</strong>ne is the semi-corporeal near-incarnation of the divine<br />
microcosmic soul, and the perfection of the macrocosmic world<br />
of substances. Like the monad, it slips like a ghost between<br />
insubstantial ideas and forceful reality. Basil Valentine’s book On<br />
Natural and Supernatural Things is largely <strong>about</strong> tincture, another<br />
relative of the S<strong>to</strong>ne; he says it has a “supernatural, fleeting, fiery<br />
spirit,” so that it does not pertain <strong>to</strong> the world of visible and<br />
tangible nature. But at the same time it can be found in all<br />
metals, and so it is partly natural. 15 Everything mundane except<br />
the S<strong>to</strong>ne simply exists. Only the S<strong>to</strong>ne can occupy the<br />
impossibly thin membrane between the mundane and the<br />
transcendental.<br />
That is what perfect painting is: neither entirely dull water and<br />
s<strong>to</strong>ne, nor weightless representation. Not merely a wooden panel<br />
coated with cracked and abraded paint, nor entirely a madonna<br />
and child. Or as in Rembrandt, not just a slather of oil, nor simply