Drie delen van kroonlijsten en deel van spiegellijst 1712

This print by Daniël Marot shows designs for cornices and mirror frames, likely made in the late 17th or early 18th century. The designs would have been produced through laborious carving and gilding, transforming humble wood into luxurious surfaces. Marot worked as an ornamental designer, meaning that he produced drawings of architectural features to be executed by others. Prints like this one were essentially advertisements, showing the skill and refinement of the design, and by implication, the patron who commissioned the work. The highly skilled labor that went into this kind of project would have been largely invisible, subsumed into a general impression of wealth and refined taste. The rigorous skill of the craftsman and designer would be downplayed by a focus on the supposed genius of the artist. But in fact, the real beauty of these objects comes from the sensitive translation of design into material form, an inherently collaborative process.