Frieze with Fruit, Foliage and Putti Climbing through Strapwork
late 16th century
Medium
Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over traces of red chalk
Dimensions
3 5/8 x 10 5/16 in. (9.2 x 26.2 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1967
Accession Number
67.538.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
This enchanting drawing, *Frieze with Fruit,oliage and Putti through Strapwork*,ails from the late 16th century and is attributed to Hans Speckaert or an anonymous Netherlandish artist. Created during the vibrant Northern Renaissance, when artists drew inspiration from Italian Mannerism, it captures a whimsical decorative frieze alive with playful putti—chubby, mischievous cherubs—frolicking amid abundant fruit and twisting foliage. These lively motifs, intertwined with intricate strapwork (a stylized, leather-like interlacing pattern), evoke the ornate grotesques popularized in Renaissance de...