The King and Queen in the Bath (Rosarium Philosophorum)

This black-and-white woodcut illustration depicts a crowned king on the left and a crowned queen on the right, both nude, seated in a hexagonal stone basin filled with swirling water. The figures extend their arms toward the center of the bath, each holding a small flower; these flowers cross in the middle of the frame. Directly above the crossing stems, a dove descends with wings spread, representing the spirit or influence of the divine. The style is characterized by heavy, rhythmic linework and simplified forms typical of 16th-century printed alchemy manuals.

This image is from the 'Rosarium philosophorum' (1550), a foundational alchemical text detailing the 'hieros gamos' or sacred marriage of opposites, representing the conjunction of the solar and lunar principles required to create the Philosopher's Stone.