Additional Information

Chrysopoeia by TILLIAN

Painted 23.7’2

In ‘CHRYSOPOEIA’, I conjure a vivid allegory of transformation, drawing upon the ancient Hermetic concept of the transmutation of base matter into gold — a metaphor for spiritual perfection. The painting unfurls in a dynamic interplay of elemental forms: verdant waves, fiery tongues, embryonic spirals, and crystalline crowns. Saturated with deep reds, greens, purples, and solar yellows, the work orchestrates a complex dance of opposites — fire and water, growth and decay, darkness and revelation. The central green form, suggestive of a leaf, serpent, or wing, moves with a powerful upward thrust, embodying metamorphosis and the yearning for transcendence. This primal energy is counterpointed by delicate striations and eddies throughout the surface, hinting at organic cycles and the unconscious processes of psychic integration. Melding influences from early Modernist abstraction, visionary symbolism, and Jungian alchemical imagery, ‘CHRYSOPOEIA’ invites the viewer into a luminous field where the transformation of spirit and matter is not a distant allegory but a present, living force.

“The mediaeval Rosicrucians speak of the Elixir of Life as ‘a fiery water, a watery fire, a current which flows like water’. The alchemical water had the power to dissolve and animate inert matter, to resurrect the dead, and to wash blackness into whiteness. Water was believed to be the soul of all substances”.
Jung, Psychology and Alchemy