Draak en griffioen in gevecht 1600

Antonio Tempesta made this small engraving of a dragon and griffin in combat sometime in the late 16th or early 17th century. It is an allegorical scene full of symbolic meaning for its time. The battle between a dragon and a griffin was a popular motif in Renaissance Europe, often used to represent the conflict between good and evil, or the triumph of reason over chaos. As a printmaker in Italy, Tempesta would have been aware of the classical associations of the griffin as guardian of treasure, contrasting it with the more ambiguous symbolic value of the dragon. The image creates meaning through visual codes, cultural references, and historical associations. These are brought into focus through the institutions of art and learning. To fully understand the imagery here, we have to look at its period of origin, delving into period texts and the wider visual culture. In doing so, we come to understand art as something contingent on social and institutional contexts.