Design for a Casket with the Gonzaga Eagle

Giulio Romano

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This beautiful design for a casket is another example of Giulio Romano’s multifarious designs at the court of the Gonzaga in Mantua. It was probably meant as a presentation drawing and contains various options which had to be decided on before its execution. Most notably, Giulio presented two different ways of decorating the space between the Gonzaga eagle and the lion’s feet. On the left we see an acanthus scroll while on the right he has rendered a palm leaf. Similarly, the decorative frieze around the top of the lid can be executed fluted, or with a pattern of acanthus leafs. The detail with which the artist executed the drawing is incredible and can be most clearly noted in the plant stem which encircles the body and right wing of the eagle.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art