Fabel van de pauw en de nachtegaal

A peacock stands in the foreground with its long tail feathers trailing behind it, while a nightingale perches on a branch to the left. The goddess Juno reclines on a cloud in the upper left corner, looking down at the birds. The background features a detailed landscape with a stone bridge, a castle on a cliff, and a distant tower.

Aegidius Sadeler was the imperial engraver to Rudolf II in Prague, where this work was produced as part of a series of animal fables. In the alchemical and hermetic environment of the Rudolfine court, the peacock's tail (cauda pavonis) was a major symbol for the stage of the Great Work characterized by a rainbow-like transformation of matter.