Saterkop met ramshorens en ezelsoren 1510 - 1546

This drawing, whose date is unknown, was made by Giulio Romano. It’s a pen drawing in brown ink, depicting a grotesque head with ram’s horns and donkey’s ears, held at the Rijksmuseum. The image immediately strikes one as a study in contrasts. Romano has used a limited palette to create an image which exudes chaotic energy. The frenetic lines of the hair, beard and features contrast with the blank flatness of the paper. We find ourselves in a liminal space between the comic and the terrifying. The carefully observed chiaroscuro gives the face a sculptural quality, almost as if we are looking at a bas-relief rather than a drawing. The face is presented frontally, but the addition of horns and ears, and the exaggeration of the facial features serve to destabilize the classical harmony typically associated with Renaissance art. The meaning here is not fixed; instead, we are invited to consider the unstable relationship between humanity and animality, beauty and ugliness, order and chaos.