Neptunus en Ceres (?) omringd door bladranken en grotesken 1480 - 1536

This etching presents Neptunus and Ceres amidst foliage and grotesques, conceived by Daniel Hopfer. The trident of Neptunus, god of the seas, and the fruits offered by Ceres, goddess of agriculture, speak to nature's bounty and human dominion over it. Consider the grotesque—a motif born in ancient Rome, buried in the ruins of Nero’s Domus Aurea, then reborn in the Renaissance. The winged mask embodies a primal fear, a half-human, half-animal chimera that lurks in the shadows of our unconscious. It's a symbol of the irrational and chaotic, a potent visual metaphor that engages viewers on a visceral level. The grotesque has journeyed through time, reappearing in myriad forms, from the gargoyles of Gothic cathedrals to the fantastical creatures of Hieronymus Bosch. This reflects our enduring fascination with the darker aspects of human nature, the struggle to reconcile order and chaos. The non-linear progression of this symbol echoes our own psychological landscapes—a cyclical return to primal anxieties, transmuted and reinterpreted across the ages.