Design for Vase
mid-18th century
Medium
Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, brush and sanguine wash
Dimensions
6 7/16 x 4 3/16 in. (16.4 x 10.7 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, 1948
Accession Number
48.148(33)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Jacques François Joseph Saly’s *Design for Vase* captures the elegance of mid-18th-century French ornamental art. Created as a preparatory drawing, the sheet presents an imaginative vase adorned with graceful mermaid figures, blending marine mythology with refined decorative form. Saly, a sculptor and designer active in both France and Denmark, used this type of study to explore sculptural ideas before they were realized in bronze, marble, or porcelain. The artist employed pen and black ink with layers of gray and sanguine wash to suggest volume, shadow, and the play of light across curved su...