Six Animals, including lions, a tiger, a leopard, a griffin, and a goat 1525 - 1566

Curator: "Six Animals" by Battista Franco...it’s an engraving, dating back to the mid-16th century. We have it here at the Met. Editor: Well, hello there, fierce beasts! It has such a restless feel to it, doesn't it? They look ready to spring from the paper, or perhaps caught in a momentary standoff. The artist does capture a dramatic air even though the scene feels static. Curator: It’s interesting that you say that. For me, that tension is rooted in the heraldic, symbolic weight that each creature brings with it. The lion, the tiger... emblems of power, ferocity. And then, the griffin... guarding treasure, wisdom, or vengeance, depending on which version you subscribe to. Editor: Yes! Absolutely. Animals, especially in earlier times, were often stand-ins, right? Representatives for something bigger. This engraving, with its tight lines, creates a certain drama as if they were about to wage battle with not just one another, but, say, with their own coded history. Curator: Exactly. And even the goat, amidst these predators, is not merely prey, it becomes a symbol of sacrifice, renewal. What a stark choice! They occupy this blasted landscape where these meanings can clash and coalesce. Do you also read into how meticulously the texture of each creature's skin, the pattern of light across muscle, reinforces each symbolic load? Editor: Fascinating point! The way he etches and cross-hatches...you are so right! The texture amplifies, even creates the creature’s meaning. The goat is more wiry than the lions’ muscles. But consider what might happen when all of these separate details mix… what tale of the wild spirit, Renaissance vision or the early warning do they attempt to tell us? Or are they warning us from something else? Curator: The warning embedded there speaks to the delicate balance in human nature. Here are instinct, divinity, brutality, sacrifice. In their fraught interactions with the earth around them, they lay bare our own internal, untamed landscape, with only black lines! Editor: Hmm, so beautifully articulated! Yes. Makes me think of how deeply these primal images reside in us, constantly shaping our perceptions, our stories. We are animals as much as the goat or the griffin here! This artwork invites me to ponder where humanity positions itself in all that visual rhetoric. Curator: Yes. Beautiful.