Design for a Vessel with Two Tritons Blowing Horns and a Winged Putto on Top
1652–1725
Medium
Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash over traces of graphite
Dimensions
sheet: 7 1/4 x 5 9/16 in. (18.4 x 14.2 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
52.570.261
Tags
Art Historical Context
Giovanni Battista Foggini, prominent Florentine Baroque artist (1652–1725), created this intricate preparatory drawing as a design for an ornate vessel, likely intended for luxurious decorative arts like silver or bronze work commissioned by the Medici court. composition bursts with mythological exuberance: two muscular Tritons—merman-like sea deities— conch-shell horns, supporting a dynamic, winged putto perched triumphantly atop the vessel. This lively arrangement exemplifies Baroque ornamentation, blending classical mythology with playful, theatrical energy to evoke grandeur and movement. ...
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 ...