2023 Basel Museums Guide

20 | Kunstmuseum Basel → P. 29
The Judgment of Paris is a
highlight of the museum’s
collection of old masters.
It shows the famous scene
from Greek mythology when
the Trojan prince Paris is
called on to judge which of
three goddesses is the fairest:
Hera, Athena or Aphrodite?
Renaissance painter Lucas
Cranach the Elder (1472–1553)
transforms this ancient story
into an erotic painting of
three elegantly arranged
nudes standing in a landscape.
LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER:
THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS (1528)
↓ 29 | Pharmaziemuseum der Universität Basel → P. 49
Tucked away in the heart of Basel’s medieval city
centre in the house where Froben and Paracelsus
worked and where Erasmus of Rotterdam was a
frequent guest is one of the largest collections of
medicines, amulets, herbals, apothecary’s utensils
and laboratory apparatus in existence. One of its
two historical laboratories is an alchemist’s kitchen
whose original equipment from the 16th and 17th
centuries tells of the search for the philosopher’s
stone and the hope of one day being able to transform
base metals into gold or silver.
SEARCHING FOR THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE
IN THE ALCHEMIST’S KITCHEN
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