Cosses de pois Ornament 1634

Editor: This is "Cosses de pois Ornament," a pen and ink drawing from 1634 by Balthazar Moncornet, housed at the Rijksmuseum. At first glance, it feels like an explosion of biomorphic shapes. What's your read on this, what am I missing, how do you interpret this drawing? Curator: Oh, it's more than just shapes, isn't it? This drawing pulses with a whimsical sort of order. Ornament drawings in the Baroque period served as both decoration *and* instruction, so, in this piece, Moncornet is presenting the forms, almost teaching you how to re-create these elegant details, which are pea pods. You see how each element is both distinct and harmonious, echoing natural forms while utterly transforming them? What does that tension do for you? Editor: Hmm, tension... I guess it creates this kind of organized chaos, like a garden bursting with life but neatly contained? Curator: Exactly! Think about how that mirrors the societal desire for control *and* a love of extravagance. Pea pods, symbols of fertility and abundance, are transformed into geometric precision. Maybe it’s meant to reveal the beauty in nature through rationalizing it – or even taming it. I see it and I hear Vivaldi's Four Seasons! Do you feel it now? Editor: I think I do! Seeing the tension between nature and control really opens it up. Now the title also clicks a little more; It's literally ornamentation derived from pea pods. I love when that happens. Curator: Me too! I think seeing ornament and nature as allies lets us enjoy all of the small things again.