Les Secondes Oeuvres, et Subtiles Inventions De Lingerie du Seigneur Federic de Vinciolo Venitien, page 7 (recto) 1603

This is a page from 'Les Secondes Oeuvres', or 'The Second Works' by Federico de Vinciolo, made in the late 16th century. The initial impression is of a grid, a matrix that structures the entire composition. On closer inspection, a large letter 'B' is revealed, surrounded by a laurel wreath, all rendered through this pixelated, grid-like structure. The use of the grid here is not merely decorative; it functions as a foundational element. Think of Rosalind Krauss’s writings on grids. Krauss argued that the grid in modern art represents an attempt to negate nature, to create a purely abstract space divorced from the natural world. Here, however, the grid paradoxically supports a naturalistic motif—the laurel wreath. This tension between the abstract and the representational invites us to consider how meaning is constructed through visual systems. The grid destabilizes the conventional reading of the wreath as a symbol of victory or honor, recasting it as a pattern, a design element within a larger visual structure. It encourages us to see beyond the surface, to decode the underlying structures that shape our understanding.