Design for a Stage set Showing the Interior of a Palace (recto); Architectural Sketch (verso)
mid-18th–early 19th century
Medium
Pen and black ink, brush with gray wash, touches of mauve, yellow-beige wash over black chalk. Inlayed on paper mount.
Dimensions
12 x 15 1/4 in. (30.5 x 38.8 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1971
Accession Number
1971.513.71
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the opulent world of 18th-century theater with Josef Platzer's *Design for a Stage Set Showing the Interior of a Palace* (recto) and accompanying *Architectural Sketch* (verso). Created in the mid-18th to early 19th century, this double-sided drawing captures the grandeur of Baroque palace interiors, likely intended for dramatic productions like operas or court spectacles. Platzer, an Austrian artist renowned for his theatrical designs, evokes a sense of lavish symmetry with soaring columns, arched doorways, and intricate decorative motifs—hallmarks of Rococo exuberance transitioning...