Festoen met bloemen, bladeren en vruchten 1699

Friedrich Jacob Morisson made this drawing, Festoen met bloemen, bladeren en vruchten, which translates to Garland of flowers, leaves and fruits, with an unknown material, in an unknown period. Its ideas and concepts reflect a wider social and cultural context as it connects to the history of decorative arts. The image creates meaning through the flowers, leaves, and fruits that signal abundance and prosperity and were popular in the Netherlands. We see a visual code for wealth. Cultural references in the objects signal historical associations of the time it was made, but since the work is not dated, it's hard to know what specific features of that culture influenced the artwork. However, decorative arts are usually self-consciously conservative and were deployed as signifiers of social status. As historians of art, we have the opportunity to research and interpret the context of works of art, and to use resources that allow us to understand art as contingent on its social and institutional moment.