A phoenix sat atop a tree, wings open, an assortment of animals below

This illustration was traditionally thought to be based on a composition by Raphael, but modern scholarship now disputes that attribution.

In classical myth the phoenix is an immortal bird that, at the end of a long life, builds a nest of aromatic spices and wood, ignites it, and is reborn from the ashes, an emblem of cyclical renewal and eternal life. In this print that story is condensed into a moment of magnificent stillness: the bird dominates the scene, elevated above the other creatures, its wings symbolizing ascent and transcendence, its gaze fixed upward, as if toward its moment of transformation.

The placement of the tree-branch high above the earthbound beasts reinforces that symbolic distance between the ordinary world and the mythic realm of the phoenix. Meanwhile the small beings below might represent the created world watching the divine act of regeneration unfold. The technique of engraving allows for delicate line-work to render the plumage, the fiery nest of spices, and the attentive animals.

Because this work was executed in the mid-sixteenth century in Italy, it also ties into a broader cultural moment in which the phoenix motif was revived as a heraldic and emblematic symbol of renewal and Rome's eternal empire. In Renaissance iconography the bird had also been used in Christian contexts as an emblem of the resurrection of Christ.