Ceiling Design with Neptune in Corner
17th century
Medium
Pen and brown ink, washed with brown, red and green
Dimensions
19 x 11-1/4 in. (48.3 x 28.6 cm) at turn of corner
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Cornelius Vanderbilt, 1880
Accession Number
80.3.648
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate 17th-century drawing *Ceiling Design with Neptune Corner*, captures the grandeur of Italian Baroque ornamentation. Created anonymously by an Italian artist, it sketches a corner section of a lavish ceiling, featuring the sea god Neptune amid dynamic horses—likely his mythical sea steeds—evoking the dramatic illusionism popular in palaces and churches of the era. The unusual dimensions (19 x 11-1/4 inches at the turn of the corner) highlight its practical purpose as a preparatory study for architectural decoration, where designs wrapped around vaulted surfaces to create immersive ...