The Green Lion Devouring the Sun

The image features a stylized lion with a shaggy green coat standing in profile on a small hillock. The lion's jaws are clamped firmly around the neck of a sun disc, which has a human face with a calm, stoic expression. Red droplets of blood flow downward from the sun's neck toward the ground. Above the lion, a large, scrolling parchment banner fills the upper portion of the frame, containing handwritten German text.

This image is a seminal emblem from the Rosarium philosophorum (1550), representing the alchemical process of 'dissolution' or the 'putrefaction' of gold by the 'green lion' (an acidic solvent, often vitriol). It illustrates the critical phase where the metallic body must be broken down and 'killed' to be subsequently resurrected in a purified state.