Labeled outright "Coniunctio sive Coitus," this is the sequence’s most explicit plate: Sol and Luna, still crowned, locked in physical embrace on open ground, sun and moon faces floating in the sky beside them. Alchemists used sexual union as their central working metaphor for the chemical combination of opposites — a fixed, "male" sulphur and a volatile, "female" mercury reacting to form a new, third substance. Beneath the image, German verses have Luna and Sol address one another directly, each claiming to need the other’s power to be complete. The plate was frank enough that later, more decorous editions sometimes bowdlerized or cut it; this 1550 Frankfurt printing keeps it intact. It sits at the structural center of the twenty-plate sequence — everything before builds toward this joining, and everything after (death, purification, rebirth) follows directly from it.

Maker: Unknown (anonymous woodcut artist)
Medium of the original: Woodcut
Original held by: Wellcome Collection, London
Credit: Wellcome Collection, London · via Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00520

As chosen: 16 x 24 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	16 x 24 in
Outside size	17.6 x 25.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
8 x 12 in	444	Excellent	Trimmed 5.2%
12 x 18 in	296	Excellent	Trimmed 5.2%
16 x 24 in	222	Excellent	Trimmed 5.2%
20 x 30 in	177	Good	Trimmed 5.2%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
8 x 10 in	Wrong shape: a 21% crop
11 x 14 in	Wrong shape: a 20% crop
12 x 16 in	Wrong shape: a 16% crop
16 x 20 in	Wrong shape: a 21% crop
18 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 16% crop
24 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 21% crop
24 x 36 in	148 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
30 x 40 in	Wrong shape: a 16% crop
36 x 48 in	Wrong shape: a 16% crop
40 x 60 in	88 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged

Scanned

2026-10-07

Master file

3,558 x 5,632 px, srgb, Adobe RGB (1998)

Tone

Darks 63, lights 188 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark

Colour

0% vivid

Sharpness

46.32

Notes

Colour profile Adobe RGB (1998), converted to sRGB for the screen and the print
Neutrals lean warm (yellow): the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned

Shipping for this piece to a US address is $25.90, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.

Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.

A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.