Twee Ionische hoofdgestellen gedecoreerd met mascarons en bladranken 1593 - 1595

Wendel Dietterlin made this print of two Ionic capitals decorated with mascarons and foliage at the end of the 16th century. Dietterlin published books of architectural designs, fantastical and impractical, that were intended as source material for other artists and builders. Dietterlin worked in the German lands, an area still recovering from the Wars of Religion. His designs were part of a wider attempt to revive civic life through grand building projects. As a Protestant, Dietterlin was excluded from official patronage. Nonetheless, he promoted a vision of architecture in which decoration, especially the grotesque faces we see here, could act as a form of visual rhetoric. Architecture should speak to its inhabitants. For the historian, prints such as this are fascinating documents that offer a glimpse into the cultural and social aspirations of their time. Library collections and municipal archives would be the places to begin to understand more. They remind us that art is always contingent on its moment.