Plate 9: a cartouche with the head of a ram at top center, flowers at top left and right, from 'Twelve cartouches' (Recueil de douze cartouches)

Art Historical Context

Welcome to Plate 9 from *Twelve Cartouches* (*Recueil de douze cartouches*), a delightful etching created around 1640–45 by the Italian master printmaker Stefano della Bella collaboration with French publishers François Langlois and Collignon. This second state of four captures an elegant cartouche—a decorative frame popular in 17th-century Europe—featuring a majestic ram's head crowning the top center, by blooming flowers on the left and right. Trimmed to a petite 3¼ × 2⅝ inches, it's a gem from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints collection, bequeathed by Phyllis Massar in 2011. Cartouches like this one were essential ornamental motifs during the Baroque era, used to enclose coats of arms, titles, or inscriptions in architecture, books, and furnishings. Della Bella, renowned for his intricate, lively etchings influenced by French and Italian decorative traditions, excelled at such designs, blending natural elements like the ram (symbolizing strength and fertility) with floral exuberance. This series exemplifies the collaborative printmaking culture of mid-17th-century Paris, where publishers like Langlois and Collignon disseminated innovative ornament for artists and designers. Etching allowed for the fine lines and textures that bring this cartouche to life, showcasing the evolution across its four states as artists refined details. A testament to the era's fascination with elaborate decoration, it invites us to appreciate how such prints shaped the visual language of luxury and grandeur.