Fantasiestad met antieke ruïnes 1505 - 1562

Jan van Scorel created this drawing, "Fantasiestad met antieke ruïnes," with pen and brown ink. The drawing layers foreground figures leading elephants and camels, with ancient ruins rising behind them, and a densely packed city sprawling across the top. The city, rendered with tight, angular lines, contrasts with the more rounded forms of the animals and the soft hatching defining the landscape. Van Scorel uses line to structure the composition, guiding our eye from the intricate foreground towards the architectural fantasy above. The drawing flattens space, collapsing depth and creating a sense of a dreamscape. It destabilizes clear distinctions between reality and imagination. The precise, controlled lines suggest an underlying order, yet the overall effect is one of fantastical invention. The artwork explores an imagined world, inviting us to question the boundaries of reality and artistic representation.