Design for a Pedestal (recto); Design for the Plan of a Monument (verso)
1652–1725
Medium
Pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk. Vertical ruling lines (recto). Black chalk (verso)
Dimensions
sheet: 5 1/4 x 3 11/16 in. (13.3 x 9.3 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1952
Accession Number
52.570.235
Art Historical Context
Giovanni Battista Foggini (2–1725), a leading Florentine sculptor and architect the late Baroque era, crafted this intimate double-sided drawing as a preparatory study for grand architectural elements. Active in the Medici court, Foggini was renowned for his ornate, dynamic designs inspired by masters like Gian Lorenzo Bernini, blending sculpture with architecture in opulent palaces and chapels. Created during the height of Baroque exuberance in 17th- and early 18th-century Italy, this sheet exemplifies the meticulous planning behind monumental commissions. On the recto, Foggini employs pen a...
About the Artist
Giovanni Battista Foggini · 1652–1725
**Giovanni Battista Foggini** (1652–1725) was a leading Italian sculptor and architect of the late Baroque period, born in Florence within the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. He began his career under the patronage of the Medici family, who sponsored his artistic training. In 1673, at the age of 21, Cosimo III de' Medici sent the young Foggini to Rome to join the newly founded Accademia Fiorentina, where ...