Cartouche geflankeerd door vijf soldaten 1630 - 1672

This design for a cartouche, flanked by five soldiers, was drawn by Pieter Jansz, sometime in the 17th century, using pen, brush and grey wash on paper. Look closely, and you will notice that this isn’t a fully realized drawing. More like a sketch, in which the artist is thinking through the interplay of figuration and ornament. The frame of the cartouche itself is rendered with sinuous curves, flowing into a grotesque mask at the top. Note how Jansz experiments with shadow, deepening the grey wash to give the design a three-dimensional quality. The artist’s hand is really evident in the drawing, in the confidence and efficiency of his strokes. It’s not hard to imagine this design realized at a much larger scale – perhaps as a plaster relief on a façade, or even as a carved stone element. This reminds us that even a simple sketch can represent countless hours of labor and skilled craftwork. This drawing, like so many others, invites us to reflect on the distance between the initial conception and its ultimate manifestation.