Within a context in which experimental science redefined the limits of legitimate knowledge, alchemy acquired new visual and symbolic expressions in nineteenth-century western art. This study adopts a qualitative, iconographic-symbolic approach that treats alchemical concepts as structures rather than decorative motifs. The chromatic stages of transformation, the Sol–Luna polarity, and the principle of coniunctio oppositorum are employed as interpretive tools to examine how meaning is constructed through composition, color, and figural relationships. These tools are applied to three case studies from England and France. The analysis demonstrates that alchemy functions as a visual logic responding to the intellectual and spiritual fragmentation of modernity. The revival of alchemy provided artists with a symbolic framework through which tensions between matter and spirit, tradition and modernity, and vision and knowledge are negotiated. The study argues that alchemy operated as a visual-symbolic method contributing to the transformation of aesthetic discourse.

Title

ARTS: Artuklu Sanat ve Beşeri Bilimler Dergisi

Publisher

Mardin Artuklu University Publications (MAU Press)

Publisher Country

Turkey

Publication Type

Online only

Volume

16

Year

2026

Pages

181-198