Titelblad: vazen 1648 - 1655

Jean Lepautre created this print, Vases, in France in the seventeenth century. It's an etching, meaning the image was incised into a metal plate with acid, then printed onto paper. Lepautre was a designer and engraver. The print shows a vase in front of a palatial building. Two cupids flank a cartouche with lettering. The lettering is a publisher’s address; this print was likely the title page for a series of vase designs. Seventeenth-century France, under Louis XIV, was developing institutions such as the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, which codified artistic standards. Prints like these helped to disseminate those standards. They helped to define a canon of approved forms for art and architecture. The vase itself, with its classical figures, is a clear expression of the period's artistic values. To better understand this print and its context, scholars consult not just the print itself, but documents such as records from the Royal Academy, the writings of critics, and other prints and drawings.