This series of twelve designs, executed by the English artist Robert White after the Italian Federico Zuccaro, exemplifies two important elements of ornamental design in the seventeenth century: the cartouche and the auricular style. Each engraving centres around a blank space, into which an inscription or coat of arms might be set. Though cartouches originated as elementsof larger design programs, with their elaborate designs they became, as exemplified in this series, the focus of entire design programmes. The auricular style was influenced by the curling, fleshy appearance of the ear, and appears in the series in the tentacle-like surround on print eight, or the dog-like masks that frame several of the images. Often used in metalworking designs, the use of it in this series gives the designs a sense of weight and three-dimensionality, appropriate for designs that could be used in the decoration of furniture, architecture or silverware.