What Painting Is: How to Think about Oil Painting ... - Victoria Vesna

WHAT PAINTING IS 79
last, and then the materia prima: After the materia prima there are
animals, vegetables, and minerals, each more perfect than the
last, until finally the spirit of the world is “concentrated and
fixed,” made into “a Pure extract of chaos.” The chain ends with
the quintessence, in the form of a sign combining mercury and
gold . The whole symbol is a map, detailing the descent from
unrelieved chaos to rude materia prima, through the familiar
spheres of animal, plant, and mineral, and onward into heavenly
perfection. The sign of the cross appears three times, at the top,
on the bottom, and in the middle, as reminders that God has set
everything in place. God has already made materia prima, and it is
up to alchemists to accelerate and complete His work.
Occasionally alchemists talk about a secunda materia, and they
mean this halfformed materia prima. 15 On this diagram, the “true”