Design for Cartouche: Allegory of Fire
Classification
ornament
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council
Accession Number
1921-6-326-2
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Jacques de Lajoüe (1687–1761), a prominent French artist of the Rococo era, *Design for Cartouche:ory of Fire* in 1740. This delicate ornamental drawing exemplifies the playful elegance of Rococo design, a style that flourished in 18th-century France under XV. De Lajoüe, as a painter and architect, specialized in intricate decorative motifs for architecture, furniture, and prints, blending fantasy with refined asymmetry. A cartouche is a scrolled, ornamental frame often used to enclose coats of arms, titles, or symbolic scenes in grand interiors or engravings. Here, it allegorizes the element...