The artist Bernard Picart is mostly knwon as a printer, for which numerous preparatory drawings have been recorded.[1]
Although the present drawing has been rendered utmost graphically and looks like an outline plate corresponding to a fully worked-out print, a matching print has not been recorded (and the design has not been indented for transfer either).
The design shows a splendidly drawn Allegory on the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, personified by seven putti, surrounding a Coat of Arms with the Dutch Lion mounted on a pedestal. Amongst the subjects depicted are putti dressed like Mercury (Hermes), God of trade and financial prosperity, depicted with his caduceus which was supposed to give him free passage. Another putti sits on a chest filled with coins while he holds a cornucopia, which symbolizes affluence and wealth. On the right Mars is represented as well as putti with a canon, reflecting on the (Marine) wars in the seventeenth century.
[1] R.-J. te Rijdt, 'Bernard Picart', Delineavit et Sculpsit no. 11, december 1993, p. 34-36
