On my return, my friends implored me not to return to the alchymist’s abode. I had been for about a year the pupil of Cornelius, though I was absent when this accident took place. I was then very young-very poor-and very much in love. Experiment after experiment failed, because one pair of hands was insufficient to complete them: the dark spirits laughed at him for not being able to retain a single mortal in his service. ![]() He had no one near him to put coals on his ever-burning fires while he slept, or to attend to the changeful colours of his medicines while he studied. All his scholars at once deserted him-his servants disappeared. The report, true or false, of this accident, was attended with many inconveniences to the renowned philosopher. All the world has also heard of his scholar, who, unawares, raised the foul fiend during his master’s absence, and was destroyed by him. His memory is as immortal as his arts have made me. For ever! Can it be? to live for ever! I have heard of enchantments, in which the victims were plunged into a deep sleep, to wake, after a hundred years, as fresh as ever: I have heard of the Seven Sleepers-thus to be immortal would not be so burthensome: but, oh! the weight of never-ending time-the tedious passage of the still-succeeding hours! How happy was the fabled Nourjahad!-But to my task.Īll the world has heard of Cornelius Agrippa. I will tell my story, and so contrive to pass some few hours of a long eternity, become so wearisome to me. I will tell my story, and my reader shall judge for me. Yet it may have remained concealed there for three hundred years-for some persons have become entirely white-headed before twenty years of age. I detected a grey hair amidst my brown locks this very day-that surely signifies decay. In comparison with him, I am a very young Immortal.Īm I, then, immortal? This is a question which I have asked myself, by day and night, for now three hundred and three years, and yet cannot answer it. More than eighteen centuries have passed over his head. July 16, 1833.-This is a memorable anniversary for me on it I complete my three hundred and twenty-third year! Although the work is static, Dalí conveys eternity and the passage of time through the swirl within the figure's face.“Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose” At the top of the face/jewel is an angel. The other facets of the main figure's face include two classical portraits in profile, one of which has a green gem as an eye. Alchemically, the egg represents rebirth and the creation of the Philosopher's Stone. The egg is both an alchemical and dalinian symbol and was certain to appear in some detail of Alchimie des Philosophes. In terms of Dalí's symbolism, the egg represents rebirth and resurrection, which is similar to the alchemical meaning as well. In the center of the face/path is a cracking egg. The center facet features another androgynous head, whose face is replaced by a swirling pathway on which travelers (alchemical pilgrims) stand facing a sphinx. Instead of a face, the figure has a pear-cut jewel with different forms in each facet. The figure is angrogynous, wearing unisex clothing and lacking any identifiable features which adds to the anonymity of the print. The composition of Immortality is one of the most static in Alchimie des Philosophes. Dalí presents the figure as a conventional chest-length portrait. ![]() ![]() According to alchemical legend, once the successful alchemist is tranformed by the Elixir/Stone, the unconscious aspect of his psyche will be illuminated by consciousness. This portrait-like image can be interpreted as the representation of a successful alchemist, one who has attained immortality. ![]() The Elixir can transmute all metals into gold, cure all disease, resurrect the dead, and guarantee immortality. Immortality does not mimic a particular alchemical symbol, but instead represents the effects of the Elixir of Life, or the Philosopher's Stone-the goal of alchemy.
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