Liggende geit de voorpoot uitgestrekt c. 1657 - 1761

Marcus de Bye etched this small print of a resting goat sometime in the 17th century. The goat, a creature often associated with virility and untamed nature, reclines with a striking ease. Look at its extended foreleg, a gesture of relaxation, but also of latent power, ready to spring into action. Goats have carried symbolic weight across cultures—from the scapegoats of ancient rituals to the embodiment of the god Pan, with his dual nature, part human, part beast. Consider the image of the goat in ancient Greece, often linked to Dionysian revelry and the primal energies of life. This contrasts with later Christian interpretations, where the goat sometimes symbolizes the unrepentant. Such shifts in meaning reveal how cultural memory reshapes our understanding of symbols. This image engages us on a visceral level; the goat's gaze, both calm and knowing, pulls us into a space where instinct and intellect meet. The symbol of the goat thus undergoes a cyclical progression, continually resurfacing and evolving, carrying echoes of past meanings into new contexts.