De zee-monsters 1692 - 1717

This roughly square, undated print, ‘The Sea Monsters,’ comes to us from the bookseller, Gijsbert de Groot’s widow. Its nine panels array an array of creatures, mostly seals, within simple landscapes of land, sea, and sky. These scenes employ a limited palette, dominated by browns, blues, and oranges, creating a sense of harmony, despite the monstrous nature of the creatures depicted. Each vignette is framed by a thin, dark line, isolating it from the others, yet the grid format encourages a reading across and down, inviting comparison and contrast. The composition echoes the organizational principles of early scientific illustration, yet the creatures defy easy categorization. Are they real or imagined? Monstrous or merely strange? The print disrupts our expectations, challenging the boundaries between the known and the unknown, the natural and the fantastical. Its structure is not just aesthetic but epistemological, asking us to reconsider how we classify and understand the world around us.