Wilton album, folio 41: The Drunken Silenus (Tazza Farnese)

Annibale Carracci

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

On folio 41 of the Wilton Album For more information on the Wilton album see entry for 27.78.1(1-428) The impression was taken from a shallow silver vessel - the so-called Tazza Farnese - engraved by Annibale Carracci for Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, and now in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples. Carracci produced a number of preparatory drawings for this design: a highly developed one is at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1972.133.4). For the Paniere Farnese, engraved by Francesco Villamena after Carracci, thought to have been a companion piece for this object, see the entry for 27.78.1(149).

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