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

hapsody on salt. Welling says that the three principles sulfur,
salt, and mercury are the Heavens that existed at the beginning
of creation (the Hebrew shamayim , another favorite
alchemical word from the opening of the book of Genesis). To
Welling, the shamayim are nothing other than fire and water, and
fire and water are nothing other than the “secret salt.” 22
The Renaissance scholar Martin Ruland lists fifty synonyms for
materia prima in his Alchemical Lexicon, and his nineteenth-century
translator A.E.Waite adds another eighty-four. 23 The materia
prima, Ruland says, is the “greatly admired Creature of God,”
and it is the microcosmos because it contains every substance in
creation. In a typical alchemical paradox, it can even be the
philosopher’s stone itself, especially if it is the “one thing” that
comprises the Stone. And the materia prima is the water of life,
“for it causes the King, who is dead, to awake into a better mode
of being and life.” It is shade, because it makes darkness, and
dew, because it “falls from the air and stimulates the soil.” It is
also lye, “for it washes and cleans the metals, and the body of the
King”; bath, “for it washes and cleanses the King and the metals,
and causes them to perspire”; vinegar, “for it macerates, makes
spicy, pickles, renders savoury, strengthens, preserves, corrodes,
and yields a tincture”; and also shit, “for it manures the earth,
which it renders moist, fat, and fruitful.” And Ruland goes on, in
the manner that Rabelais parodies in his fanciful lists. The materia
prima is also:
Eagle Stone. Spirit. Nebula.
Venom. Medicine. Fog.
Poison. Heaven. Moon.
Cinnabar. Clouds. Stella signata.
Lucifer. Tin. Magnet.
Permanent Water. Sulfur of Nature. A White Moisture.
Metallic Water of
Life.
Lime. White Smoke.
Leafy Water. Alum. Metallic Entity.
Fiery Water. Spittle of the Moon. Virtue of
Salt of Nitre. Incombustible Mineral Mercury.
Saliva.
WHAT PAINTING IS 81
Saltpeter. Burnt Copper. Soul of the
Elements.
Bride. Black Copper. Matter of all Forms.