Vijf putti in de wolken met een wapenschild 1786

Daniël Vrijdag created this etching of five putti in the clouds with a coat of arms, though we don’t know exactly when. The Netherlands in the 18th century was a society steeped in tradition, and heraldry played a key role in signifying lineage, power, and status. Coats of arms were not just decorative, they were a visual language, communicating complex information about a family's history. Here, the putti, or cherubic figures, floating in the clouds, elevate the coat of arms, quite literally. One blows a trumpet, and the other are adorned with garlands. The putti add an air of celebration and reverence to the image. But whose coat of arms is being celebrated here? It takes some digging to understand how coats of arms were deployed in Dutch society. Who was this artist working for and what was he trying to communicate? By studying heraldry and the archives of Dutch families, we can better understand this print’s original cultural context.