Artist · 49 prints
Michael Maier Prints
About Michael Maier
Michael Maier was a German physician, alchemist and writer, born around 1568 in Rendsburg, Holstein, and died in Magdeburg in 1622. He studied at Rostock and Frankfurt an der Oder and took his medical doctorate at Basel in 1596. In 1609 Emperor Rudolf II appointed him a court physician in Prague and ennobled him, and he later spent several years in England, around the court of James I.
Maier's most famous book is Atalanta Fugiens (1617), an alchemical emblem book built around the Greek myth of Atalanta. It pairs fifty engraved pictures, attributed to the engraver Matthäus Merian the Elder, with poems, commentary and fifty short pieces of music, so readers could look, read and sing at once. It was printed at Oppenheim by the de Bry publishing house. Maier was also linked to the Rosicrucian movement, and Michael Maier's emblems are still among the best-known images of early modern alchemy.
Michael Maier prints: reproductions of the alchemical engravings from Michael Maier's emblem book Atalanta Fugiens, taken from the 1618 edition. The collection includes Emblem 8: Take the Egg and Smite It With a Fiery Sword, Emblem 25: The Dragon Does Not Die Unless Slain by Brother and Sister, Emblem 34: He Is Conceived in Baths, Born in the Air, Emblem 39: Oedipus, Having Overcome the Sphinx and Emblem 44: Typhon Kills Osiris by Trickery.
This selection brings together a large run of the book's emblems, each titled with its original motto. They show alchemical ideas as small scenes: kings in baths, dragons, wolves, eggs, fire, and figures from Greek and Egyptian myth, often set in detailed landscapes and towns. All are black-and-white engravings.
The small, detailed engravings suit studies, libraries and offices, and they work best hung in grids of four, six or more. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
