Albumblad met vier prenten met vingerhoedjes met Bijbelverhalen, een kan en de muzen 16th - 17th century

This album leaf with four prints, created by Balthazar van den Bos in the 16th century, presents us with a fascinating array of images, dominated by a large ewer ornamented with figures, masks, and foliage. The ewer, a vessel for pouring, features a figure playing an instrument atop a serpentine body. This merging of human and animal forms echoes ancient myths, where gods and heroes often took on animal aspects, symbolizing power or transformation. Zoomorphic forms and convoluted figures recall similar motifs in ancient Roman art, where hybrid creatures embodied a connection to both the earthly and divine realms. This iconography—the serpent entwined with human form—speaks to a deeper psychological tension between control and instinct. The spiraling form is an embodiment of dynamism, the perpetual flux that underlies human experience. Such symbols, like echoes, resound across time, their meanings reshaped by each generation. This visual language connects us to the past, revealing how humans have grappled with similar themes of identity, power, and transformation across millennia.