Design for the Salon of the Pleasure Pavilion, Favorita, at Ludwigsburg, 1718

Design for the Salon of the Pleasure Pavilion, Favorita, at Ludwigsburg, 1718

Donato Giuseppe Frisoni

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This impressive drawing shows a design for a Salon, meant for the pleasure pavilion and hunting castle called ‘Favorita’ in the park of the Palace of Ludwigsburg. The rich, almost fully symmetrical design is executed in a late Baroque style and is decorated all over with gilt stucco ornaments. The latter were an (North) Italian specialty and it leaves no wonder that this interior was designed by an Italian architect and stucco artist: Donato Giuseppe Frisoni. He came to Ludwigsburg in 1709 as a partner of Tommaso Soldati (Bergamo, active first quarter of the 18th century), but by 1715 he was named head architect by his patron Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Württemberg. This design for a Salon at the pleasure pavilion Favorita was made in 1718 and carries the handwriting of both men. In the inscription below, Frisoni describes the room and the materials it will be executed in: glass mirrors, marble and stucco. He also mentions that the ceiling was to be painted in fresco. At the lower left, the Duke has left his initials as a sign of his approval of the design.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for the Salon of the Pleasure Pavilion, Favorita, at Ludwigsburg, 1718Design for the Salon of the Pleasure Pavilion, Favorita, at Ludwigsburg, 1718Design for the Salon of the Pleasure Pavilion, Favorita, at Ludwigsburg, 1718Design for the Salon of the Pleasure Pavilion, Favorita, at Ludwigsburg, 1718Design for the Salon of the Pleasure Pavilion, Favorita, at Ludwigsburg, 1718

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.