Alchemy in art and entertainment
In the fourteenth century, Chaucer began a trend of alchemical satire that can still be seen in recent fantasy works like those of Terry Pratchett.
In the early fifteenth century, significant pictorial elements began to appear in alchemical works such as the Ripley Scroll and the Mutus Liber.
Inspired by the work of Horapollo, this allegorical art form was adopted by alchemists and used in the engravings of Matthäus Merian, Lucas Jennis, Johann Theodor de Bry, Aegidius Sadeler, and others.
The pigment recipes of artists such as Cennino Cennini and Theophilus have been influenced by both the practical and theoretical aspects of alchemy, and contained some allegorical and magical elements.
Some lesser known artists such as Brett Whiteley, Krzysztof Gliszczynski, and Thérèse Oulton openly use alchemical symbols.
Beginning with Zosimos of Panopolis (AD 300)[7] and extending through the history of alchemy, texts appear in the alchemical corpus that are more allegorical than technical.
Stanton J. Linden, in his 1996 Darke Hierogliphicks; Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration, applies the term both to stories which deal extensively with alchemists and the process of alchemy (of which the earliest is Chaucer's The Canon's Yeoman's Tale), and stories which include alchemical allegory or imagery (of which the most extensive and well-known is the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz).
John Granger, who studies the literary alchemy in J. K. Rowling's, Harry Potter series explains: If you recall your Aristotle on what happens in a proper tragedy, the audience identifies with the hero in his agony and shares in his passion.
The alchemical work was claimed to be greater than an imaginative experience in the theater, but the idea of purification by identification or correspondence with an object and its transformations was the same in both.
[11] Sir Gareth's quest parallels the process of alchemy in that he first undergoes the nigredo phase by defeating the black knight and wearing his armor.
The main character in the play Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), by Ann-Marie MacDonald, succeeds in determining the alchemy behind Shakespeare's Othello.
The list of authors who do not mention alchemy or alchemists, nor use alchemical allegory or imagery, but who use ideas which obliquely remind Meakin of alchemy include Charles Williams,[13] William Godwin, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Émile Zola, Jules Verne, Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, James Joyce, Gustav Meyrink, Lindsay Clarke, Marguerite Yourcenar, Umberto Eco, Michel Butor, Amanda Quick, Gabriel García Marquez and Mária Szepes.
Based on The Golden Egg, this film features direct alchemical devices such as the appearance of the Mutus Liber.
Evidence of an alchemical interpretation of Jason and the Golden Fleece can be found as early as the writings of John of Antioch (seventh century).
Like other twentieth century forms of entertainment, movies and shows featuring alchemy often include elements of magic and fantasy.
In this interpretation, Alchemy was capable of creating artificial lifeforms known as Chemys that imitate things that exist in this world.
Alchemy and alchemical concepts appear in comics, as well as Japanese manga and anime in a fashion consistent with twentieth century fantasy fiction.
