Sculptural detail, Upper courtyard, Hotel Lallemant

Madman with a necklace of bells, sticking out his tongue and wearing the winged helmet of Mercury (mercury is one of the base metals used in alchemy), holding a broken sceptre and a dog. Below the fool is a smaller figure holding a vial, sculptural detail on a corbel below the corner turret in the Upper courtyard of the Hotel Lallemant, a mansion built 1495-1518 in French Renaissance style by the Lallemant merchant family, in Bourges, Centre Val de Loire, France. The sculptural decoration on the building, made by both French and Italian sculptors, has been interpreted by Fulcanelli and others as having an alchemical symbolism. Since 1951 the building has housed the Musee des Arts Decoratifs and it was listed as a historic monument in 1840. Picture by Manuel Cohen

Picture No

13437251

Media ID

45125389

Size

4724px x 7087px (11.1MB)

Credit

Manuel Cohen / Mary Evans

Source

Photograph by Manuel Cohen