Ornamentprent met dieren c. 1560 - 1620

This ornament print with animals was made by Giacomo Franco around 1600 using etching. The composition teems with natural and mythical creatures, all meticulously rendered. The print invites the viewer into a microcosm where elements of the real and imagined coexist. The animals—leopards, a goat, a lizard, and a griffin—are arranged not according to any naturalistic logic but more as design elements within a structured space. Franco's lines define the musculature of the animals and create texture and depth, though the scene maintains a relatively shallow picture plane. The animals are frozen mid-motion, which suggests a world where the laws of nature are suspended. The print destabilizes the traditional boundaries between nature and artifice. The natural world is ordered according to an aesthetic vision. Franco challenges the viewer to reconsider the relationship between the organic and the constructed.