The Ouroboros
after a Greek alchemical manuscript, reproduced 16th c.
No print size passed the check for this piece: at 8 x 10 in, Wrong shape: a 12% crop. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.
See pieces like it you can buyA serpent bends into a perfect circle and swallows its own tail — the ouroboros, among the oldest symbols in the Western imagination, standing for the round of dissolution and renewal, the whole that feeds on itself. The motif reaches back to a Greek alchemical manuscript, the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra, where it encircles the words hen to pan — 'the all is one.' For the alchemists it was the emblem of their whole enterprise: matter endlessly consumed and reborn in the sealed vessel. Few images say so much with so little. A line that closes on itself, and inside it, everything.
- Maker
- after a Greek alchemical manuscript
- Date
- reproduced 16th c.
- Medium of the original
- Plate
- Original held by
- Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra · scan: Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra · scan: Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00476
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 8 x 10 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 8 x 12 in | Wrong shape: a 27% crop |
| 11 x 14 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 12 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 17% crop |
| 12 x 18 in | Wrong shape: a 27% crop |
| 16 x 20 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 16 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 27% crop |
| 18 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 17% crop |
| 20 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 27% crop |
| 24 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 24 x 36 in | Wrong shape: a 27% crop |
| 30 x 40 in | Wrong shape: a 17% crop |
| 36 x 48 in | Wrong shape: a 17% crop |
| 40 x 60 in | Wrong shape: a 27% crop |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,817 x 2,000 px, srgb
- Tone
- Darks 0, lights 255 of 255; 78.5% clipped light, 13.6% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 21.65
- Notes
- Pure white on 79% of the image, mostly the sheet itself: it prints as the paper's white
- Shadows clip on 14% of the image: the darkest areas print as solid black
- A plain margin is part of the file (16% of an edge): it prints as part of the picture
The Hermetica
The esoteric tradition’s emblems, astrological figures and the old charts of palmistry and phrenology.
All 58 pieces from The Hermetica
