Draak 1587

This drawing of a dragon was made anonymously, and we can find it at the Rijksmuseum. This fearsome creature emerges from the waves, its scaled body, webbed feet, and dolphin tail demonstrating the artist’s interest in natural history, myth and the artistic tradition of the grotesque. The image calls to mind the cultural importance of the dragon, a symbol of chaos and destruction that figures in folk tales across Europe. It is no accident that this image can be found in a museum, rather than a book of science. The image would have been part of a collection of drawings or prints that was carefully arranged to make a particular argument about the world. To understand the meaning of this image, we need to examine the social and cultural history of the museum and collecting practices. We can discover the image’s cultural significance by researching the library and archive collections where it has been stored.