Frame van rolwerk met twee saters, een herme en een kind 1516 - 1556

This is an anonymous engraving, titled "Frame van rolwerk met twee saters, een herme en een kind" now housed in the Rijksmuseum. The composition is strikingly vertical, a tapering arrangement filled with hybrid forms. These composite figures are organized into distinct tiers. Notice how the composition is structured around symmetry and repetition. We see mirrored satyrs, and a continuous unfolding of vegetal motifs intertwined with human and animal forms. The artist uses hatching and cross-hatching to build up tone and texture, creating a rich surface that invites close looking. Here, visual elements become signs within a larger symbolic system. Satyrs, herms, and putti were often used to evoke themes of fertility, nature, and classical antiquity. By combining these elements within a rigid, architectural framework, the print destabilizes conventional categories. The engraving challenges fixed meanings, offering a glimpse into a world where the boundaries between nature and culture, human and animal, are constantly blurred and renegotiated. Art, therefore, does not have a singular, unchangeable meaning but remains a site of ongoing interpretation.