Titelblad: Trophées d'Armes Antique et moderne, seruant a toutes sortes d'ouuriers, pour l'enbelissement de leurs ouurages before 1667

This print, *Trophées d'Armes Antique et moderne*, was made by Jean Lepautre in Paris sometime in the mid-17th century. It is an engraving, meaning the image was incised into a metal plate, which was then inked and printed. Look closely, and you’ll see that the composition teems with weapons, armor, and symbolic figures of victory. Consider what this image actually *is*: a pattern for other craftsmen to use. Lepautre was not making a commentary on warfare. Rather, he was providing a template, a source of inspiration, for other makers to incorporate into their own work. This gets at the core of what it meant to be a designer in the early modern period. Skill lay not in originality, as we tend to think today, but in the expert deployment of existing motifs. It was all about the circulation of ideas, and Lepautre was a key node in that network. His engravings put motifs into the world for others to use, blurring any distinction between high art and practical application.