Two Figures Digging in a Cave, Aurora Consurgens

The image features two figures in a cavernous setting. The foreground figure wears a bright orange hooded tunic, orange stockings with white cuffs, and is hunched over, using a pick-like tool to excavate the earth. A second figure behind them wears a grey hooded tunic and grey boots, leaning forward as if assisting or watching the labor. To the right, a stylized bird sits upon a woven nest atop a rocky outcrop against a deep blue background. The style is that of a medieval manuscript illumination with bold, flat colors.

This illumination is part of the 'Aurora Consurgens', a 15th-century alchemical treatise attributed to pseudo-Thomas Aquinas. The imagery of digging and excavation is a central metaphor in alchemy for the 'solve et coagula' process and the extraction of the prima materia from the earth.