FROM RICHES TO RAGS: The Medical Alchemist, an 18th-century oil painting on copper by Franz Christoph Janneck, depicts a urinalysis scene. Painted during a period when European society transitioned from revering alchemists as legitimate medical practitioners to viewing them as quacks, the piece appears to reflect this latter opinion. The frayed Turkish carpet on the alchemist’s table hints at poverty. His cap—a traditional physician’s hat—sits askew on his balding head, his stocking droops, and the glasses he wears make his eyes appear almost comical. GIFT OF FISHER SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL. CHEMICAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION COLLECTIONS. PHOTOGRAPH BY WILL BROWN. During the Middle Ages, European alchemists, in addition to their quest to transform common metals into gold, often acted as physicians and pharmacists. They diagnosed diseases and concocted cures from herbs and minerals using techniques such as distillation and metallurgy, methods familiar to modern-day scientists.
Early pictorial representations of their work as healers were restricted to alchemical texts and manuals. Over time, artists began to depict them in paintings, such as The Medical Alchemist (see image), an archetypal 18th-century piece by Austrian artist Franz Christoph Janneck, in which an alchemist plays physician, peering up at a urine sample.
Tests of urine—analyzing the color, smell, sediments, or even the taste—were frequently used at the time to diagnose medical conditions. In this painting, the patient, or a maid who delivered the sample, waits for the results, while the alchemist’s assistant keeps a flame going under the distillation apparatus. He’s surrounded by the tools of his trade: herbs dangle from the rafters; a mortar and pestle and a manuscript with alchemical symbols lie ...
