Verzameling van dieren 1806 - 1830

Johan Noman created this print, "Verzameling van Dieren," its title meaning "Collection of Animals," using etching techniques. The composition is rigidly structured, organizing twenty-four squares into a grid. Each square encases a different animal—a menagerie of the familiar and the exotic—set against decorative botanical motifs. This ordered arrangement suggests a desire for categorization, an attempt to impose a system upon the natural world. The stark contrast between the black lines and the white background lends the print a quality of graphic clarity, yet also reveals a tension. The animals, though depicted with a degree of naturalism, are stylized, reduced to their essential forms. The meticulous etching creates a textured surface, a tactile quality that invites closer inspection. The grid format, combined with the semiotic reduction of the animals to symbolic forms, prompts a reading of the print as a structuralist exercise, where meaning is derived not from the individual elements but from their relationships within the system. It’s in this interplay of order and representation that the print's cultural significance resides.