The Alchemist's Laboratory from Heinrich Khunrath, Amphiteatrum sapientiae aeternae 1535 - 1611

Curator: The Amphiteatrum Sapientiae Aeternae's print of "The Alchemist's Laboratory", dating from around 1595-1609, demonstrates Mannerism tendencies and was created using etching. Look at how much text is embedded. It looks less like an image than some kind of bizarre instructional manual. Editor: It's so busy, isn't it? There's the central scene, but then all this text radiating outwards. What should we make of the text itself, then? Curator: The materiality of this work and how it was constructed as an intellectual, economic, and even spiritual artifact holds so much value. Consider how this was produced, reproduced and distributed at a time when new methods of communication were drastically transforming knowledge production and accessibility. What do you notice about how knowledge production is related to labor in this image? Editor: Well, there's the obvious manual labor – the physical act of writing all that text and the figures around the table. The instruments they are using also seem important, because they make work like this more effective, or faster. What about the more scholarly activity going on? Curator: Exactly! But it goes beyond simply illustration or reproduction of texts; there’s a re-thinking and even performing of knowledge happening here. Imagine this image not only being reproduced as part of an intellectual trend, but as an almost "spiritual commodity." Do you think it changes your understanding of the work to realize that this piece—this labor—exists in the same sphere as material goods like, say, medicine or tools? Editor: Definitely, it blurs the line between science, labor and philosophy. And if this was reproduced, shared and maybe even traded or sold then you've got a connection to economics, too. Curator: Absolutely. We're looking at more than just an image; we're examining a process of cultural and material exchange, labor and consumption all intertwined in the creation of art and the pursuit of knowledge. Editor: Seeing it that way really opens up new questions about who had access to this image, and how they used it.