Cartouche (design)

Cartouches are found on buildings, funerary steles and sarcophagi. The cartouche is generally rectangular, delimited by a molding or one or more incised lines, with two symmetrical trapezoids on the lateral edges.

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  Roman rectangular cartouche on the frieze of the entrance of Horrea Epagathiana et Epaphroditiana, Ostia, Rome, unknown architect, 145-150 AD[2]
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  Roman cartouche on the pedestal of the Obelisk of Theodosius, Hippodrome of Constantinople, Istanbul, Turkey, unknown architect or sculptor, 390[3]
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  Roman cartouche on the right leaf of the Symmachi–Nicomachi diptych, c.400, ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, London[4]

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  Chinese cartouches on a Longquan ware Vase, 14th century, celadon, British Museum, London[5]
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  Chinese cartouches, illustration from L'Ornement Polychrome, by Albert Racinet, 1888

The Renaissance brought back elements of Greco-Roman culture, including ornaments like the cartouche. Compared to their ancient ancestors, the ones from the Renaissance are usually much more complex. Cartouches continue to be used in styles that succeed the Renaissance. Most have the usual look of a symmetrical oval with scrolls developed during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, but some are highly stylized, showing the diversity of styles popular over time. They were used constantly, and were one of the main motifs of Rococo and Beaux Arts architecture.

Their use started to fade in Art Deco, a style created as a collective effort of multiple French designers to make a new modern style around 1910. This is because of the fact that artists of this movement tried to create new ornaments for their time, most often stylizing motifs used before, or coming up with completely new ones. Art Deco also followed the principle of simplicity, another reason for the rarity of complex ornaments like cartouches or mascarons in Art Deco.

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  Renaissance stucco cartouche on a wall in the Gallery of Francis I, Palace of Fontainebleau, Fontainebleau, France, by Rosso Fiorentino, designed in 1532[6]
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  Renaissance cartouches on the Monument for the heart of Francis I, Basilica of Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis, France, by Pierre Bontemps, 1556[7]
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  Renaissance cartouche on the Hôtel Bénigne Le Compasseur (Rue Vannerie no. 64), Dijon, France, unknown architect, 1570[8]
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  Two Renaissance cartouches, a big one with Alexander the Great and a smaller one with an inscription, by Crispijn van de Passe the Elder, 1574-1637, engraving on paper, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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  Renaissance cartouche in a pediment of the west facade of the Cour Carrée of the Louvre Palace, Paris, designed by Pierre Lescot, 16th century[9]
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  16th and 17th century Renaissance cartouches from L'Ornement Polychrome, by Albert Racinet, 1888
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  Baroque cartouche at the entrance of St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, unknown architect or silversmith, c.1615
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  Design of a Baroque cartouche, by Stefano della Bella, 1647, etching on paper, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, US
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  Baroque cartouche with putti, above a mirror in the bedchamber of the Mecklenburg Apartment, Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin, unknown architect, 17th century
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  Brâncovenesc cartouche on a damaged stone in the courtyard of Antim Monastery, Bucharest, Romania, unknown sculptor, late 17th-early 18th century
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  Baroque cartouche of the frontispiece for Figures françoises et comiques by Robert Hecquet, possibly 1702, etching in paper, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
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  Baroque cartouche, unknown date, etching on paper, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York
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  Baroque cartouche-shaped corbels on the facade of the Hôtel d'Eynaud (Rue de l'Arbre-Sec no, 52), Paris, unknown architect, 1721
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  Baroque cartouche on the edges and corners of The Astronomers, designed by Guy-Louis Vernansal, 1722-1724, wool, silk and tapestry weaving, Louvre
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  18th century Rococo cartouches from L'Ornement Polychrome, by Albert Racinet, 1888
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  Rococo cartouche of the Hôtel de Conti (Place du Château no. 14), Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, unknown architect, 18th century
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  Rococo cartouche from the Second Livre de Cartouches, c.1710-1772, Rijksmuseum
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  Baroque cartouche on the Fontana del Pantheon, Rome, by Filippo Barigioni, 1711
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  Baroque cartouche of the El Transparente altarpiece, Toledo Cathedral, Toledo, Spain, designed and made by Narciso Tomé, 1729-1732[10]
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  Rococo cartouche in the corner of a Versailles plan, by Jean Delagrive, 1746, engraving on paper, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris[11]
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  Rococo cartouche in the Cuvilliés Theatre, Munich, Germany, by François de Cuvilliés, 1751-1753[12]
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  Rococo cartouche on a tureen, by the Sèvres porcelain factory, 1757–1758, soft-paste porcelain, Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  Rococo engraved tradecard of Percy Webster, clockmaker from London, c.1760, engraving, unknown location
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  Rococo Revival cartouche on a fan, unknown designer and producer, c.1850, paper, gouache, gilding, mother-of-pearl, Musée Galliera, Paris
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  Rococo Revival cartouche ob a cone-shaped vase, part of a pair, by Nicolas Bugeard?, mid-19th century, hard-paste porcelain, painted and gilded, Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris
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  Renaissance Revival cartouches on a pitcher decorated with coats of arms, unknown artist or producer, 1855, porcelain, overglaze enameling and gilding, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York City
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  Renaissance Revival cartouches on a display case, designed by Eugène Prignot and Albert-Ernest Carrier de Belleuse, and sculpted by Bernard, 1867, wood and ivory, Petit Palais, Paris
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  Beaux Arts cartouche with a caduceus, on the roof of the Crédit Lyonnais headquarters (Boulevard des Italiens no. 17-23), Paris, by William Bouwens van der Boijen, 1876-1883
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  Beaux Arts cartouche with a mascaron, above the entrance door of the Académie d'Agriculture de France, Paris, unknown architect, 1878[13]
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  Renaissance Revival cartouche of Rue des Archives no. 9, Paris, unknown architect, c.1880
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  Beaux Arts mascaron on the Monument à la République by Place de la République, Paris, sculpted by Léopold Morice and designed by François-Charles Morice, 1883
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  Beaux Arts cartouche as a painter's palette of the Grave of Gustave Jundt, Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris, by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, c.1884
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  Renaissance Revival polychrome cartouche on the facade of the Toulon Art Museum, designed by Gaudensi Allar and sculpted by Victorien Bastet, c.1888
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  Neoclassical cartouche on a Pompeian style wall in Strada Nicolae Filipescu no. 45, Bucharest, Romania, unknown architect or painter, c.1890
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  Neoclassical cartouches in and under a pediment of the Traian Hall (Calea Călărașilor no. 133), Bucharest, by Giulio Magno, 1896
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  Beaux-Arts cartouche of the Pont Alexandre III, Paris, designed by Joseph Cassien-Bernard and Gaston Cousin, 1896-1900
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  Art Nouveau cartouche on the Alexandru Gr. Ionescu House (Bulevardul Lascăr Catargiu no. 4), Bucharest, by Eduard Romantxo, 1898[14]
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  Rococo Revival stucco with cartouches in the corners on a ceiling of the Cantacuzino Palace, Bucharest, by Ion D. Berindey, 1898-1906[15]
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  Complex Beaux Arts cartouche of Intrarea Costache Negri no. 1, Bucharest, unknown architect, 1899
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  Beaux Arts cartouche above the entrance of the Hôtel Le Vavasseur (Rue Boissière no. 21), Paris, by Ernest Sanson, 1899
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  Beaux Arts cartouche on facade of the Cozette Boulangerie (Rue Montgallet no. 19), Paris, unknown architect or painter, late 19th century[16]
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  Beaux Arts cartouche of the Pont de Bir-Hakeim, Paris, by Jean Camille Formigé, Louis Biette and Daydé & Pillé, 1903-1905
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  Gothic Revival shield-like cartouches on the Hermann I.Rieber carriage factory (Strada Romulus no. 17), Bucharest, by Siegfrid Kofczinsky, 1903[17]
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  Romanian Revival cartouche above a window of the Aurel Mincu House (Bulevardul Dacia no. 60), Bucharest, by Arghir Culina, 1910[18]
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  Highly stylized Art Nouveau cartouche on Rue Jean-de-La-Fontaine no. 21, Paris, by Hector Guimard, c.1911
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  Greek Revival cartouche of a horse tie ring of the Adina and Emil Costinescu House (Strada Polonă no. 4), Bucharest, by Ion D. Berindey, 1911-1915[19]
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  Art Deco cartouche on a fan, produced by Au Bon Marché, 1920-1925, vellum, stamping, wood, metal, and silver plating, Musée Galliera
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  Art Deco cartouche above the entrance columns of the National Diet Building, Kyoto, by Fukuzo Watanabe, 1920-1936
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  Stalinist cartouche of the Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw, Poland, by Lev Rudnev, 1952-1955

At the end of the WW2, with the rise in popularity of the International Style, characterized by the complete lack of any ornamentation, led to the complete abandonment of any ornaments, including cartouches.

They reappear later in some Postmodernism, a movement that questioned Modernism (the status quo after WW2), and which promoted the inclusion of elements of historic styles in new designs. An early text questioning Modernism was by architect Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966), in which he recommended a revival of the 'presence of the past' in architectural design. He tried to include in his own buildings qualities that he described as 'inclusion, inconsistency, compromise, accommodation, adaptation, superadjacency, equivalence, multiple focus, juxtaposition, or good and bad space.'[20] Venturi encouraged 'quotation', which means reusing elements of the past in new designs. Part manifesto, part architectural scrapbook accumulated over the previous decade, the book represented the vision for a new generation of architects and designers who had grown up with Modernism but who felt increasingly constrained by its perceived rigidities. Multiple Postmodern architects and designers put simplified reinterpretations of the elements found in Classical decoration on their creations. However, they were in most cases highly simplified, and more reinterpretations than true reuses of the elements intended. Because of their complexity, cartouches were extremely rarely used in Postmodern architecture and design.[21]

Cartouches enjoyed more popularity in Retro style of the 21st century, through designs inspired mainly by the 18th and 19th centuries.

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  Postmodern mascarons in cartouches spilling water in Piazza d'Italia, New Orleans, USA, by Charles Moore, 1978[22]
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  Cartouche with an Art Nouveau-inspired print on a Vans t-shirt, unknown fashion designer and illustrator, c.2021, print on textile