Alchemists at Work (Aurora Consurgens)

This miniature depicts three figures engaged in labor against a solid blue background. On the left, a figure in a red tunic stands at a wooden bench, leaning over a mortar-like stone basin while another figure in a green tunic assists. To the right, a bearded figure in a light blue tunic sits on a small stool, raising a hammer above a flat, rectangular block. The figures are rendered with simple, pale skin tones and outlined features, typical of 15th-century manuscript illumination style.

This image is an illustration from the *Aurora Consurgens*, an important 15th-century alchemical treatise attributed to Pseudo-Aquinas, symbolizing the mechanical labor required in the 'Great Work' of alchemy.