Putti Supporting Coat of Arms above Archway
17th–18th century
Medium
Pen and brown ink, brush and gray-brown wash, over traces of graphite underdrawing
Dimensions
sheet: 8 9/16 x 12 in. (21.8 x 30.5 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, 1949
Accession Number
49.50.115
Tags
Art Historical Context
Nestled in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, this delicate 17th- or th-century Italian drawing, *Putti Supporting Coat of above Archway*, captures playful exuberance of Baroque ornamentation. Anonymous hands crafted a preparatory design for an architectural feature, where chubby putti—cherubic child figures symbolizing innocence and divine joy—hoist a heraldic coat of arms atop a graceful archway. These motifs were staples in Italian palazzos, churches, and villas, blending heraldry with whimsical fantasy to adorn facades or interiors for nobility and clergy. Ex...