Paulus op Malta

Saint Paul leans over a central bonfire to add brushwood as a snake latches onto his hand, surrounded by a group of astonished Roman soldiers and local islanders. In the background, a broken ship is tossed by waves while survivors struggle toward the shore. The engraving features the muscular, twisting poses and high-contrast detail characteristic of late sixteenth-century Mannerist printmaking.

This scene represents the 'miracle of immunity' where the holy man exerts dominion over the 'venomous' aspects of nature, a theme that fascinated Renaissance natural philosophers studying the properties of poisons and theriacs. Aegidius Sadeler was a key figure in the circle of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, where the boundaries between religious miracle, natural wonder, and esoteric philosophy were frequently blurred.