Kist, gedecoreerd met een lege cartouche in een omlijsting van rolwerk

A cartouche or cartouch is an oval design with a slightly convex surface, typically edged with ornamental scrollwork. It is used to hold a painted or low relief design. In Early Modern design, since the early 16th century, the cartouche is a scrolling frame device, derived originally from Italian cartoccia. Such cartouches are characteristically stretched, pierced and scrolling (illustration, left). Another cartouche figures prominently in the title page of Giorgio Vasari's Lives, framing a minor vignette with a device of pierced and scrolling papery cartoccia.

Here we have strange, weird and wonderful prints and paintings by Medieval and Renaissance artists. Sometimes it is difficult to explain the scene, the whole thing just seems so ridiculous, and we get a good laugh out of it.

A collection of antique book patterns from front or end papers spanning from 1890-1930 from Bergen Public Library Norway.