Popularly intended to transform base metals like lead into gold, alchemy relied on special glassware like alembics, and is included with other ‘dark arts’ in paintings.
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A deer substituted for the sacrifice of Iphigenia, as companions for the sorceresses Medea and Circe, in Bonnard’s rural idyll, Rosa Bonheur’s wildlife portraits, and others.
Jason’s father was too old to celebrate his son’s success in getting the Golden Fleece, so his wife Medea uses sorcery to wind the clock back and make him young again.
Waved by Circe and Medea, later in Tasso’s ‘Jerusalem Delivered’, and by Morgan le Fay in Arthurian legend. Paintings by Poussin, Waterhouse and others.
The Lycians turned into frogs when they refused the goddess Latona a drink of water, and the sorceress Medea accompanied by toads.
She agrees to help Jason complete his three tasks and take possession of the Golden Fleece, in return for which Jason will marry her.
An unusual story of sorcery used to restore youth has seldom been painted – even after Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein became popular.
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