Oval Portrait of a Man in an Elaborate Frame with a Cartouche
ca. 1724
Medium
Red chalk, highlighted with some white gouache, black chalk
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 5/8 × 6 13/16 in. (24.4 × 17.3 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2014
Accession Number
2014.766
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the intricate world of 18th Italian draftsmanship with Antonino Grano's *Oval Portrait of a Man in Elaborate Frame with Cartouche*, created around 1724. This drawing captures a poised male subject framed within an ornate oval cartouche—a decorative scroll-like element popular in Baroque and early Rococo designs. Grano, a Sicilian known for his portraits, renders the man with refined elegance, blending portraiture and architectural ornamentation in a single sheet. Executed in red chalk (sanguine), heightened with white gouache for luminous highlights and accented by black chalk, the ...