The King and Queen in the Bath (Rosarium philosophorum)

This woodcut illustration shows a male figure (the king) and a female figure (the queen) sitting waist-deep in a rectangular stone bath. Both figures are nude, crowned, and face the viewer; the woman has long, flowing hair while the man has shorter hair. They each hold a long-stemmed flower, crossing the stems between them as a bird, often interpreted as a dove or the Holy Spirit, descends from above to land on the crossed stems. The composition is stark, rendered in black ink on a plain background, characteristic of 16th-century printed alchemy manuals.

This image represents the 'chemical wedding' or coniunctio, a central concept in alchemy symbolizing the union of opposites, such as sulfur and mercury or sun and moon, to produce the Philosopher's Stone. It is one of the iconic series of woodcuts from the 'Rosarium philosophorum', a seminal 16th-century alchemical text.