Coat of Arms (blank) with Two Putti Holding a Crown 1600 - 1700

Curator: Here we have "Coat of Arms (blank) with Two Putti Holding a Crown," a drawing and print created sometime between 1600 and 1700 by an anonymous artist. Look closely at the elaborate details rendered in line, sketch and charcoal! Editor: It feels playfully austere, if that makes any sense? The empty shield at the center, framed by all this frolicking, feels pregnant with possibility but also strangely...lonely. Curator: Indeed! The blank coat of arms leaves the symbolic work entirely up to its patron, or perhaps a future one. It is dripping with Baroque allegory, but it requires the user to give it context. The Metropolitan Museum houses this intriguing example. Think about its place as an early exercise in branding, an opportunity for someone to declare their lineage and aspirations through recognizable visual motifs. Editor: Lineage, aspirations, sure. But those chubby putti! They're like mischievous cherubs struggling with the weight of that rather imposing crown. Are they reverent or slightly mocking? And that ram's head at the base… is that a touch of dark humor? Curator: Or perhaps an assertion of virility and strength? Remember, coats of arms were deeply enmeshed within a complicated societal theater of honor, and visual rhetoric played a central role. Editor: It's more than a little ironic that we're left to project meaning onto this, to fill the blank space. Perhaps that’s the real point: heraldry as an exercise in storytelling, inviting interpretation as a vital force. Curator: Precisely! So many potential stories waiting to be etched. Editor: I'm suddenly filled with an urge to grab a pencil. All this heraldry inspires the most unique creative impulses to surface. I feel honored just to witness that moment. Curator: Hopefully this work enables everyone to feel their own story. Thanks for stopping by.