Study for the modeling stand of the Ugolino group

Study for the modeling stand of the Ugolino group

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Carpeaux drew this in preparation for a modeling stand to be used in the creation of his fifth-year project at the French Academy in Rome, Ugolino and His Sons (1861). It includes a finalized design of the pyramidal sculpture. The wooden modeling stand was constructed to hold the clay version of the group from which a plaster cast was made. The stand's top was designed with an embedded rotating circle, allowing the sculptor to turn the piece and view and work on the group from various angles.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study for the modeling stand of the Ugolino groupStudy for the modeling stand of the Ugolino groupStudy for the modeling stand of the Ugolino groupStudy for the modeling stand of the Ugolino groupStudy for the modeling stand of the Ugolino group

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.