The Barber, from the series The Alchemical Properties of Metals,

1530s

Domenico Beccafumi is best known for the dazzling chromatic effects produced in his paintings, oil sketches, and chiaroscuro prints. These woodcuts, with their fine linearity, relate more closely to his designs for the black-and-white marble pavement of Siena’s cathedral. The prints form part of a series likely intended to illustrate an alchemical text. Beccafumi depicts various unidentified gods bound and then brought to an anvil; representing various metals, they are symbolically caught by the metallurgist, who is shown accompanied by a sagelike alchemist. In the series, half the prints depict this mythic transmission of knowledge; the remainder claim to depict processes of extracting gold.