Two Alternatives Designs for a Cartouche Decorated with a Frame, Statues, and Volutes.
1604–87
Medium
Pen and brown ink, over traces of black chalk
Dimensions
sheet: 10 x 3 7/8 in. (25.4 x 9.8 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1950
Accession Number
50.605.20
Tags
About this artwork
These imaginative cartouche designs exemplify the Baroque enthusiasm for elaborate ornamental frameworks that transformed architectural and decorative spaces throughout seventeenth-century Europe. Created by Michelangelo Colonna, an Italian artist active from 1604 to 1687, these alternative designs showcase the period's fascination with dynamic, sculptural decoration featuring volutes, statuary, and complex framing elements. Cartouches served as ornamental panels or tablets, often containing ins...