Design for a Cartouche, Plate 4 from 'Allerneueste Façon einiger Schild oder Cartouches' 1745 - 1755

This print, now in the Met, was made by Andreas Hofer, and comes from a series of designs for cartouches. It’s an etching, meaning that Hofer covered a copper plate with a coating, drew this image into it, then bathed the plate in acid, which bit away the exposed lines. The resulting grooves could then be inked and printed many times over. Note the graphic quality, the subtle gradations of light and shadow. This is all achieved through the crisp, controlled marks of the etcher’s needle. This wasn’t art for art’s sake; it was meant for use by other craftsmen. Cartouches like this one would be used on everything from furniture to buildings to metalwork. They were a fashionable way to add ornamentation, a kind of ready-made design element, and would have helped spread a unified aesthetic across Europe. This print thus embodies the close relationship between design, production, and consumption in the 18th century. It reminds us that even seemingly unique creations often rely on a shared visual language.