Horizontal Panel with a Row of Flowers Above a Frieze with Figures in a Landscape, from Livre Nouveau de Fleurs Tres-Util

Art Historical Context

This delicate etching, *Horizontal Panel with a Row of Flowers Above a Frieze with Figures in a Landscape*, comes from the *Livre Nouveau de Fleurs Très-Util* (New Book of Very Useful Flowers), published in 1645 by French engravers Nicolas Cochin the Elder and Balthazar Moncornet. Measuring just under 3 by 5 inches, this small sheet exemplifies the intricate ornamental prints popular in mid-17th-century France, blending a vibrant row of blooming flowers and leaves atop a narrative frieze of men and women amid a pastoral landscape. Created using etching and burin techniques—etching for fluid lines and burin for fine, precise engraving—the print served as a practical pattern book plate. Such designs were essential tools for artisans, providing motifs for textiles, furniture, and architecture during the Baroque era's growing taste for elaborate decoration. Cochin and Moncornet's collaboration reflects the era's collaborative printmaking culture, where publishers like Moncornet disseminated innovative floral and figural elements inspired by nature and classical antiquity. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, this work highlights the "useful" beauty of ornamentation, bridging art and craft in a time when floral motifs symbolized abundance and harmony. Visitors will appreciate its timeless appeal as a window into 17th-century design ingenuity.