The Planetary Flasks

A round glass flask holds a small scene beneath its ruling planet — one of a sequence Splendor Solis devotes to these vessels, turning the stages of the Great Work into a set of illuminated globes, worlds within glass. Painted around 1582, they are miniature paintings in the fullest sense: a bathing scene, a garden, a night sky, each sealed inside its flask like a reliquary. The conceit is the manuscript's genius — the laboratory apparatus reimagined as a series of enchanted spheres, doctrine dissolved into pure image, the science of the furnace turned into a jeweller's window.

Maker

attributed to Salomon Trismosin

Date

c. 1582

Medium of the original

Plate

Original held by

British Library, Harley MS 3469 · scan: Wikimedia Commons

Credit

British Library, Harley MS 3469 · scan: Wikimedia Commons

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00452