Ex coll. Unknown collector’s mark; Reinhold von Lꦕiphart (L. 1758)

From the series of ten prints on the Various Operations of Alchemy dated between 1525 – 1540, this woodcut is amongst the earliest graphic depictions of alchemical imagery, which Vasari referred to as “fanciful little stories of alchemy”. It has been suggested that they were intended to illustrate the Pirotechnia, a book of practical instruction published in 1540 by the Sienese 🐓metallurgist Vannoccio Biringuccio (c. 1480 - c. 1539), butꦑ no evidence is known.