Les Singuliers et Nouveaux Portraicts... page 71 (verso) 1588

This delicate page, created around 1595 by Federico de Vinciolo, presents a singular floral design intended for lace making. The stylized flower, emerging from a slender stem, embodies more than mere decoration. Floral motifs are a perennial symbol, but here, the flower is rigidly geometric. We find echoes of this in ancient Mycenaean art. Consider the stylized lilies in the frescoes of Knossos— a world away from the Renaissance, yet united by a shared impulse to abstract nature. The flower transcends its botanical reality, becoming a vessel for human expression, and a symbol of renewal, joy, and beauty. The grid, an element of control, seems to want to contain the irrepressible vitalism of nature. It resurfaces through time, a testament to humanity's enduring dance between order and the untamed world, echoing across centuries.