Studies of a Gentian, Moth, Birds, Cats, Interlacing Motif, and Greek Frets (recto); Ornamental Studies with Figures (verso)

Studies of a Gentian, Moth, Birds, Cats, Interlacing Motif, and Greek Frets (recto); Ornamental Studies with Figures (verso)

Giorgio di Giovanni ("Giorgio da Siena")

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The range of delicately drawn animal, insect, and ornamental motifs indicates that this sheet was once part of a sketch book or model book. The imagery relates generally to a fresco cycle at the Villa Belcaro, near Siena, which the artist executed between 1530 and 1540; he became the leading practitioner of the genre of naturalistic Antique-style ornamental painting in Siena. Particularly charming here is the lively pen line used to render the two cats and small strutting barnyard fowl, while the study of the insect -- an Acherontia Atropos, otherwise known as a Death’s Head Hawk Moth -- is drawn and painted with a nearly scientific precision. The range of motifs indicates that this sheet was once part of a sketchbook or model book. The imagery relates generally to a fresco cycle at the Villa Belcaro, near Siena, which the artist executed between 1530 and 1540; Giorgio became the leading practitioner of naturalistic antique-style ornamental painting in Siena. Particularly charming here is the lively pen line used to render the two cats and the small, strutting barnyard fowl, while the insect-Acherontia atropos, otherwise known as a death's-head moth-is drawn and painted with a nearly scientific precision, even though it was intended as a motif in a decorative context. (C.C.B.)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Studies of a Gentian, Moth, Birds, Cats, Interlacing Motif, and Greek Frets (recto); Ornamental Studies with Figures (verso)Studies of a Gentian, Moth, Birds, Cats, Interlacing Motif, and Greek Frets (recto); Ornamental Studies with Figures (verso)Studies of a Gentian, Moth, Birds, Cats, Interlacing Motif, and Greek Frets (recto); Ornamental Studies with Figures (verso)Studies of a Gentian, Moth, Birds, Cats, Interlacing Motif, and Greek Frets (recto); Ornamental Studies with Figures (verso)Studies of a Gentian, Moth, Birds, Cats, Interlacing Motif, and Greek Frets (recto); Ornamental Studies with Figures (verso)

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.