The Meeting of Sol and Luna
Unknown (anonymous woodcut artist)
$235
Print check at 16 x 24 in: 212 dpi, excellent. Trimmed 2.9% to the shape of the print.
Shipping to a US address: $25.90 for this piece, from the print room in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Two crowned, fully clothed figures reach toward each other across a flowering branch held aloft by a dove: a king standing on a radiant sun-face, a queen on a crescent moon. Alchemists read this as the personified meeting of Sol and Luna — gold and silver, sulphur and mercury, the fixed and volatile principles that had to be brought into right relationship before any transformation could begin. The dove overhead marks the encounter as sanctioned rather than merely erotic, and the flowers passing hand to hand stand for the "tincture" the whole work aims to produce. Both figures still wear their royal robes here — nothing has yet been surrendered. The plate marks courtship, not union, the necessary first contact between opposites in a sequence that will only fully join them several plates later.
- Maker
- Unknown (anonymous woodcut artist)
- Medium of the original
- Woodcut
- Original held by
- Wellcome Collection, London
- Credit
- Wellcome Collection, London · via Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00518
| Picture | 16 x 24 in |
|---|---|
| Outside size | 17.6 x 25.6 in |
| Depth | 0.9 in (22 mm) |
| Weight | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]] |
| Hanging | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]] |
| Material | Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing |
| Made in | Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi |
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 | dpi | Grade | How it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 x 12 in | 425 | Excellent | Trimmed 2.9% |
| 12 x 18 in | 283 | Excellent | Trimmed 2.9% |
| 16 x 24 in | 212 | Excellent | Trimmed 2.9% |
| 20 x 30 in | 170 | Good | Trimmed 2.9% |
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 8 x 10 in | Wrong shape: a 19% crop |
| 11 x 14 in | Wrong shape: a 18% crop |
| 12 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 16 x 20 in | Wrong shape: a 19% crop |
| 18 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 24 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 19% crop |
| 24 x 36 in | 141 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 40 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 36 x 48 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 40 x 60 in | 85 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 3,400 x 5,255 px, srgb, Adobe RGB (1998)
- Tone
- Darks 80, lights 197 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 76.15
- Notes
- Colour profile Adobe RGB (1998), converted to sRGB for the screen and the print
- Neutrals lean warm (yellow): the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned
Shipping for this piece to a US address is $25.90, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.
Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.
A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.
The Alembic
Gold, the sun and the alchemist’s Great Work in eight surviving miniatures.
All 29 pieces from The Alembic
