Ornamental Panel 1514 - 1536

Editor: We’re looking at Agostino Veneziano’s "Ornamental Panel," made sometime between 1514 and 1536. It's an engraving, a print, chock-full of these bizarre and wonderful figures… I get a very ‘fantastical beast encyclopedia’ vibe, but fancier. What strikes you when you look at this, some five centuries after it was made? Curator: Oh, this isn't just an encyclopedia; it's more like a dream! A crowded, baroque fever-dream! Notice how these figures seem to emerge from a swirling ground. Griffins, satyrs, a figure emerging, perhaps, from the mouth of a marine monster… Are they fighting? Celebrating? It is hard to tell. See how there seems to be a table on top with the figures acting upon. Can you imagine its purpose? Editor: Almost like a bizarre, crowded stage? Maybe for allegorical plays, something incredibly theatrical. Curator: Exactly! It suggests such playful worldliness; almost an invitation into a lavish interior where even the walls have stories to tell. Each creature has its purpose and role, an intertwined performance. But I do not believe that this composition has any narrative purpose or meaning: is it more pure decoration, something that invites conversation and joy? Editor: Definitely evokes a sense of opulent whimsy. Not something you'd slapdash together! Each line so carefully engraved to present the world like it is exploding from the page. A performance in miniature, and you wonder at its use. It makes you feel a bit mad to look too closely at it all, you know? But also as if you can’t turn away. Curator: "Mad" might be the perfect word! Don’t get lost, for the magic happens if you accept that the overall harmony resides beyond your immediate grasp; each form exists for another and for something more; each figure supporting one another in their collective existence. Isn't art great? Editor: Definitely! It's great when art presents itself as the very essence of organised mania. Food for thought on controlled artistic explosions.