The Alchemist and the Dragon in the Vessel

A figure with blonde hair, wearing a light pink tunic and green hose, stands on the left leaning over a wooden workbench where they manipulate a white, oval-shaped object. To the right, a large, rounded glass vessel sits atop a bed of stylized orange and red flames. Inside the vessel, a blue, reptilian creature with fiery breath curves its tail to form a circle, and a smaller blue bird rests upon the creature's back. The background is a flat, muted green, and the entire scene is framed by a simple red border.

This image originates from the 'Aurora consurgens', an important 15th-century alchemical treatise attributed to pseudo-Thomas Aquinas. The imagery depicts the alchemical process of 'sublimation' or the 'union of opposites', using the dragon and bird to symbolize the reconciliation of volatile and fixed substances during the Great Work.