Blad met dieren 1750 - 1794

This broadside print presents a menagerie of creatures, real and imagined, rendered with a directness that speaks to a deep-seated human fascination with the animal kingdom. Notice how the animals are depicted in profile. This echoes ancient bestiaries, where animals were described didactically to impart moral lessons. Observe the prominence of the lion. In antiquity, the lion symbolized royalty and power, a motif seen from the Ishtar Gate of Babylon to medieval heraldry. This symbol persists, subconsciously shaping our perception of authority. The unicorn here, a symbol of purity, recurs throughout different times from ancient Greece onwards, evolving to a symbol of grace, freedom, and divine love. This desire to categorize and understand the natural world touches something primal within us, tapping into ancestral memories of survival and coexistence. This collective memory, passed down through generations, manifests in our enduring captivation with the symbolic weight of animals. It is a recurring narrative in our cultural evolution.