A king presiding over a massacre of infants; soldiers pour the blood of the infants into a boiling vat; probably representing the stage of 'putrefaction' in the alchemical process. Coloured etching after etching, ca. 17th century.

L. Dixon gives three alchemical interpretations of this scene: 1. "a reference to the extraction of two natures from the prima materia" (Poisson). 2. "a symbol of the preparation of silver" (de Givry). 3. a symbol of "the stage of 'putrefactio' or 'calcination', wherein the ingredients were heated to the point of 'death', or oxidation, in their vessel" (ibid. p. xxx). The sun and the moon bathe themselves in the blood in a ritual of solution and ablution, perhaps also alluding to the 'chemical wedding' between man and woman