Two Winged Children with Bodies Turning into Ornament Blowing Bubbles 1648 - 1658

This piece at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is an engraving made by Stefano della Bella sometime in the 17th century. Note the elaborate arrangement, a vertical configuration displaying two winged children at the top. They are blowing bubbles which float into a decorative band. The composition is bisected by a horizontal, curvilinear form with foliage. Below this we see a bat hanging upside down. The piece has a symmetrical structure, yet the images resist immediate interpretation, creating a semiotic tension. The elements are organized in a way that challenges conventional perspective. The work can be seen as an exercise in destabilization, questioning the established order of visual representation. Della Bella invites us to reconsider how meaning is constructed through form and symbolism.