Left Half of a Wall Decoration for a Chapel

Left Half of a Wall Decoration for a Chapel

Francesco Ferrari

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing contains the design for the decoration scheme for the wall of a chapel or church with an altar at center. A similar sheet showing the right half of the scheme was formerly in the collection of Lodewijk Houthakker. That sheet contains the signature of the artist, Francesco Ferrari. The two halves were undoubtedly once part of the same large presentation drawing that was later cut. Together they show that the wall was symmetrically arranged with a door on either side of the central altar. The Houthakker sheet further shows an arched pediment above the altar. Each sheet has a later inscription that appears to identify the location for which the design was intended. The inscription on the Houthakker sheet is in English and refers to a Capella Tolomei in Ferrara. The inscription on the Met's drawing, instead, is in Italian and reads "Capella di collegio Tolomei". Based on the link to Ferrara, Peter Fuhring has suggested that the scheme was designed for a chapel dedicated to St. Tolomei in the church of San Giorgio in Ferrara. The use of the word "collegio" could alternatively imply that the design was intended for the main chapel in the Colleggio Tolomei, founded in Siena in 1676 based on the stipulations of Celso Tolomei (1572-1634).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Left Half of a Wall Decoration for a ChapelLeft Half of a Wall Decoration for a ChapelLeft Half of a Wall Decoration for a ChapelLeft Half of a Wall Decoration for a ChapelLeft Half of a Wall Decoration for a Chapel

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.