Oppenheim, Germany, 1617–1618
The Wolf Devours the King
A ravenous wolf consumes a dead king, then is itself burned — and the king rises restored.
- Work
- Atalanta Fugiens, Emblema XXIV
- Artist / creator
- Michael Maier (author); engraved by Matthäus Merian the Elder
- Origin & date
- 1617/1618, Oppenheim, Germany — early modern alchemical emblematics
- Held by
- Wikimedia Commons
Format
The full-resolution color-managed file — yours to print, study, and keep.
Size
Available as a digital download only — this scan’s resolution doesn’t hold up cleanly as a physical print at any size.
$24.00
The story
The scene depicts a wolf tearing into the body of a fallen, crowned king; the accompanying discourse has the wolf then thrown onto a fire, its burning somehow returning the king to life "with enhanced vigor." The motto states the sequence flatly: "Regem lupus voravit & vitae crematus reddidit" — the wolf devoured the king, and being burned, restored him to life. Alchemists read this violent cycle as a picture of purification by antimony, traditionally figured as a wolf for its capacity to "devour" impurities out of gold in the crucible, after which the wolf-antimony was itself burned away, leaving the purified metal behind. It is among the more visceral images in the book, and a clear example of how Maier’s emblems used death and resurrection as working vocabulary for what was, mechanically, a metallurgical refining step.
About this reproduction
- Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from Wikimedia Commons’s open-access release.
- Printed to order on archival cotton-rag stock, pigment inks rated 100+ years.
- Color-managed to the source scan.
- Ships in 5–8 business days; satisfaction guaranteed.
