Symbolica
A Body Consumed by the Furnace

A Body Consumed by the Furnace

Fire as the central motif, with the Vessel in a secondary part. From The Flamel figures.

Maker not recorded; catalogued with the Flamel prints, date not recorded.

Coloured etching from the Hieroglyphic Figures attributed to Nicolas Flamel.

Public Domain Mark · Web copy 1015 by 1400 px · Wellcome Collection

Key · 2 motifs

The motifs the picture carries, filed by role. The marks on the picture itself come with the entry.

  1. 1Firecentral motif
  2. 2The Vesselsecondary motif

The picture

A man in a wide hat stands by a furnace from which flames and a figure rise, a second furnace behind; a woman in white and a boy in blue beside them; roots under the ground, clouds with red figures above; Fire as the central motif, the Vessel by eye. By eye

Not yet decoded: the key and the sourced notes come with the entry. Until then the motifs above are tagged by eye and said so.

Also carrying Fire

44 works carry it. The 6 where it is the central motif are here. The symbol.

Where the detail is the subject

the Vessel

This is in the picture without being what it is about. Below, one work that is about it.

In the same series

The Hieroglyphic Figures attributed to Nicolas Flamel

Record

Source
Wellcome Collection
Rights
Public Domain Mark. Wellcome Collection marks the work as free of known copyright restrictions.
Restoration
None. A 1015 by 1400 pixel web copy made from the source file; nothing painted, nothing upscaled.
Series
The Hieroglyphic Figures attributed to Nicolas Flamel
Titled here
A Body Consumed by the Furnace. Wellcome Collection catalogues it as: A human body is consumed by a furnace; a woman holds a small red limbless effigy bearing a crown; a man holds a sheaf, and another a stick; below, by another furnace, a green and red dragon face each other, poised for combat; representing a stage in the process of alchemy. Coloured etching, ca. 18th century.
Checked
Wellcome Collection's own catalogue record, 4 September 2026: the rights, the maker, the date, accession g9uh4tjb. The title on this page is ours, as the line above says. Not seen in the gallery. Corrected 10 September 2026. This sheet was filed as "After Nicolas Flamel, attributed"; the Wellcome does not make that attribution. Its note on the group says: "From a collection of five prints (Wellcome Library nos. 38626i, 38627i, 38628i, 38629i, 38630i) stored in the Wellcome Library with a set of prints relating to the writings of Nicolas Flamel. The collection seems to comprise two disparate series (the number 6 appears twice) Although similar in style to the Flamel-related series ... they do not seem to be directly related, because 1) the numbering in the latter series includes some of the numbers of this collection and 2) thematic differences: the Flamel-related series comprise subjects either related to Flamel's writings or the Book of Revelation. Here the imagery seems to be more arcanely alchemical". The three sheets filed here on the same day that do carry Flamel's described figures are V0025615, V0025616 and V0025617.
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Cite
Symbolica, “A Body Consumed by the Furnace”, Maker not recorded; catalogued with the Flamel prints, date not recorded. thesymbolica.com/work/a-body-consumed-by-the-furnace/