Design for a Proscenium or Monumental Alcove
1652–1725
Medium
Pen and dark brown ink, over traces of black chalk
Dimensions
sheet: 4 1/8 x 2 13/16 in. (10.5 x 7.2 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
52.570.230
Tags
Art Historical Context
Giovanni Battista Foggini, a prominent Florentine artist of the late Baroque period (1652–1725), created this intricate drawing as a design for a proenium—a theatrical stage frame—or a monumental alc, evoking the opulent architecture of 17th-century Italy. Working under Medici patronage, Foggini sculpture, architecture, and ornament in his designs, often for grand palaces and theaters. This small sheet (just 4 1/8 x 2 13/16 inches) captures his flair for dramatic, illusionistic spaces, likely featuring caryatids—graceful female figures serving as columns—to support an arched niche brimming wit...
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 ...