Design for Vase with Eagles
1652–1725
Medium
Pen and brown ink, brush and gray wash, over traces of black chalk. A vertical line in leadpoint through the center to create the symmetry of the drawing
Dimensions
sheet: 10 11/16 x 10 7/8 in. (27.1 x 27.6 cm) (irregular borders)
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
52.570.294
Tags
Art Historical Context
Giovanni Battista Foggini (2–1725), a leading Florentine sculptor and designer of the late Baroque period, created this elegant *Design for Vase with Eagles* as a preparatory drawing for an ornate decorative object. Working under Medici patronage in 17th- and early 18th-century Italy, Foggini specialized in grand architectural and ornamental schemes, blending classical motifs with dynamic Baroque exuberance. Eagles, symbols of imperial power and divinity in European art, perch dramatically on the vase, evoking the opulent vases used in palaces and gardens to showcase wealth and artistry. Exec...
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 ...