Early Modern Artistry and Experiment in the Work of Thomas Wijck

[Paul Ferguson]

"The interiors inhabited by the alchemists in the work of the Dutch artist Thomas Wijck (1616–1677) are fascinating and complex. Scattered with the tools and props of the alchemist’s trade, Wijck’s laboratories are messy spaces that privilege making and experimentation alongside creative enterprise and innovation. The alchemists who command these workrooms are not foolhardy or morally corrupt, but serious-minded, respectable individuals whose work was embedded in local and global exchanges of knowledge. Wijck’s paintings remind us of the parallels between the alchemist’s pursuit and the painter’s craft – how the grinding of pigments and mixing of solvents gave way to rich imagery of the visible world. The intersection of art and alchemy is reflected in the career of Wijck himself, an understudied artist who carefully built an artistic and professional identity around the depiction of alchemists in the early modern Netherlands."

Reviewed here:

https://hnanews.org/hnar/reviews/painted...mas-wijck/

See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wijck

https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/84301