A Scholar in his Study ('Faust')

A scholar at his writing desk, surrounded by his learned accoutrements, an astrolabe, book, pen and scattered papers, stands transfixed by the appearance of a radiant disc, covered in mystical text, hovering in the air. Next to the disc is a mirror held by a phantasmal figure, of which only the hands can be clearly discerned. One hand holds the mirror up to the scholar’s gaze, the other points to its reflective surface. The precise meaning of this mysterious print has been the subject of much scholarly debate. The earliest title given to it is found in Clement de Jonghe’s inventory of 1679, where it is described simply as Practising Alchemist. In 1731 the inventory of the Dutch collector Valerius Röver identified the print as Doctor Faustus, the name by which it is still commonly known today. In Marlowe’s play an angel appears to Faust warning him of his eternal peril should he enter into a pact with the devil. Another interpretation is that it is an allegory of faith inspired by Saint Paul’s description in his first letter to the Corinthians of mankind seeing ‘ in a glass, darkly’. In this reading the scholar, despite all his learning and reason, can only glimpse the divine mystery, symbolised by the disc with the letters INRI at its centre, the Latin acronym for Jesus Christ, in the reflection of the mirror held up to his gaze. ‘We thus see a scholar – a seeker after truth and representative of the faithful in general – who is being reminded by the apparition that human knowledge or wisdom is limited, and that it is only through Christ that we can partake of perfect knowledge in the hereafter’
(E. Hinterding, Lugt Collection, p. 477).        

This fine impression, with rich burr and printed on a warm-toned Japan paper, wonderfully evokes a golden, mysterious light illuminating the scholar and the shadowy interior.