Ornament with Grotesque
1616
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Ornament with Grotesque is a 1616 ink by Master CR, a Baroque work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This picture shows black lines on a light background. The design looks like vines and leaves wrapping around a circle. Inside the circle, two small figures stand near a tree with a wavy trunk. The whole thing feels busy but balanced, with swirls and dots filling the empty space. The small figures might be people, but they’re hard to tell. The artist used lots of tiny lines to fill in shadows and shapes—this is called cross-hatching. Check out how engraving works to see how artists carve lines into metal.
