Vlakdecoratie met trofee met schild 1516 - 1565

This print, whose maker is now unknown, pictures a long, narrow ornament incorporating a trophy with shield. Prints like this one circulated widely in the early modern period, and they acted as a kind of visual database for artists and artisans. By the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, printmaking had grown into a powerful industry, centered in cities like Antwerp and Amsterdam, and the ready availability of images played a crucial role in standardizing the visual languages of European art. Prints like this could be used by sculptors in search of ways to decorate a triumphal arch, or a silversmith looking for inspiration in the design of heraldic ornament. The circulation of prints was an early form of visual globalization, and it depended on complex economic and institutional structures, from international trade fairs to copyright laws. To learn more, scholars consult inventories of print shops, guild records, and the collections of ornament prints in museums.