Art and the Alchemy of Seeing:
The Magic of Light and Dark

(late Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and Romanticism

and Dr Carl Jung’s Psychology of Alchemy)

New three week course

Thursday 6th March, Thursday 20th March & Thursday 3rd April 2025

6.00 – 8.00 pm UK time via Zoom

£75

“‘Ars totum requirit hominem!’ (Art requires the whole person) exclaims an old alchemist . . . But the right way to wholeness is made up, unfortunately, of fateful detours and wrong turnings. It is a longissima via, not straight but snakelike, a path that unites the opposites in the manner of the guiding caduceus, a path whose labyrinthine twists and turns are not lacking in terrors.”

Dr Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy

We often take great works of art for granted, and rarely consider the deeper practical and psychological principles underlying them. In particular, how creating an image on a flat two-dimensional surface can magically become three dimensional. It is not a new idea for us today and we are often faced with ultra, or photographic realism in painting which makes us become complacent to older works of art and the transformative effects they can have on us – and us on them.

But from the late Medieval period through to Romanticism, the ‘window’ of the visual space on panel or canvas reveals a different view on the world and of our own nature, where light and dark come together to co-create. The coming together of these two opposites was magical, alchemical and practical and elevated one’s vision from something flat to something which had depth and richness.

This course will take some of the major works of art that were created during the late Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and Romantic periods (from late 1200s to the mid 1800s). Along with historical context and insights, we will explore the broader meaning of ‘seeing’ in relation to the work of Swiss psychologist, Dr Carl Gustave Jung’s work on alchemy, and of the nature of the cosmos itself through different philosophical and artistic voices.

Jung likened psychological understanding and ‘seeing’ with the alchemical stages where raw, unconscious material (whether psychological or philosophical) is transformed into a more refined, conscious form. And by its very nature art is an alchemical process whereby an idea, words and / or what is seen, is transformed into new matter (pigment), and that matter is further transformed into a living image.

The opposing elements of light and dark are integral to both the visual world and to the inner landscape of the psyche. They are not just contrasts, but co-creators and are essential forces. We will explore the four main alchemical stages of Nigredo, Albedo, Citrinitas, Rubedo in view of the artistic creative process and of your own psychological and emotional engagement with the works of art we will encounter across this fascinating time period.

• An interest in understanding art from a broader, deeper context. Why did it matter that artists and their times sought to communicate more fully myths, stories, literature, through exploring the magic of light and dark in their artistic practice, and how did this alter the beholders’ experience of the image?
• What is your experience of these works of art? How do you respond to them? What might they say or teach you?
• Exploration of the beginnings of artistic practice where light and dark was rediscovered – this will include reference to Alberti’s De Pictura, Leonardo da Vinci’s Treatise on Painting, and other ideas from later theorists, philosophers and artists.
• An interest in how Dr Carl Jung related the alchemical stages to different psychological states, and how we see and understand.
• Discovering the different layers of seeing and beholding art beyond rationalising analysis, that often lie innate within us and in the work of art.
• Discovering which works of art awaken something in you, as the seer / alchemist.