Cartouche met rolwerk 1579

This anonymous engraving on paper, called "Cartouche met rolwerk", is held in the Rijksmuseum. The image’s intricate scrollwork reflects the artistic styles that circulated through Europe at the time, driven by the advent of the printing press. The cultural context is crucial to understanding the image's function, which would have been one small part of a larger volume of plates used to teach craftsmen the latest styles. The Dutch Republic’s economic structure and the rise of a wealthy merchant class also fueled a demand for decorative arts. Manuals like this one helped spread new designs and techniques that defined the era, and it can be thought of as an early example of the rise of the design industry. To understand the print fully, one can explore the Rijksmuseum’s collection of design manuals, as well as period sources that document the transmission of design ideas. The history of art reminds us that all images are embedded in their social and institutional contexts.