The Siege of a Fortress
ca. 1680–1715
Medium
Pen and brown ink
Dimensions
9 5/8 x 8 1/16 in. (24.5 x 20.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Robert Lehman Collection
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Accession Number
1975.1.246
Tags
Art Historical Context
Carlo Antonio Buffagnotti’s “The Siege of a Fortress” captures a dramatic moment of 17th- and 18th-century warfare in pen and brown ink. Created between roughly 1680 and 1715, the shows a fortified stronghold under assault, with cannons positioned for bombardment and bridges spanning defensive ditches. The compact sheet (just under 10 inches tall) distills the chaos of siege warfare into a clear, energetic composition that highlights both military engineering and the human effort required to breach it. Buffagnotti, active in Bologna and known for architectural and battle subjects, used the fl...