Portret van Casimiro Galiberti met zevenkoppige draak 1739 - 1782

This engraving, "Portret van Casimiro Galiberti met zevenkoppige draak," was created by Gottfried von Steinberg in the 18th century. The piece immediately presents a tension through its contrasting elements. Galiberti is framed by a classical oval border, yet this border is disrupted by a grotesque, multi-headed dragon. The composition directs our eye from the subject's face, down through the symbolic objects he holds – the quill and the book – to the chaotic form of the dragon below. The texture, achieved through fine, precise lines, gives a tactile quality to the contrasting elements of soft drapery and scaly dragon skin. This interplay challenges fixed meanings, pitting reason and order against primal chaos. The dragon, a symbol of the monstrous and the irrational, threatens the boundaries of the rational portrait. Here, the formal elements serve a philosophical discourse, revealing art as a dynamic site where established categories are destabilized.