Fries met springend luipaard before 1678

This is an etching by Franz Ertinger, made sometime in the 17th century, showing a decorative frieze with a leaping leopard. It’s a design meant to be applied to a larger architectural surface. The print’s swirling acanthus leaves, grotesque masks, and overflowing baskets of fruit are a window into the visual culture of the Dutch Baroque. During this time, the Netherlands was a rising commercial empire, and artists like Ertinger found a ready market for ornament prints among craftsmen and builders eager to display their wealth and sophistication. The leopard itself, an exotic animal, would have been a potent symbol of status. What did it mean to display imagery of this kind on your walls? Whose stories and experiences were being told in the Dutch Republic? Whose were not? These are the sorts of questions that social historians of art are always asking. And to answer them, we might look to sources like period trade records, architectural manuals, and even the collections of museums like this one.