Design for a Wall Decoration with a River God and Putti carrying the Symbols of King François I

Anonymous, French, School of Fontainebleau, 16th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The complex layering, extreme flatness, ornamental line, and compression and crowding of forms in the design of this work are all characteristic of the style that evolved at the château at Fontainebleau during the reign of Francis I. At his palace in the woods outside Paris, the king had assembled such talented Italian artists as Rosso Fiorentino (1494–1540) and Francesco Primaticcio (1504–1570) to head a workshop dedicated to every facet of the palace's decoration. This drawing's technique seems closest to that of one of Rosso's collaborators, Léonard Thiry (1500–ca. 1550), particularly his designs for engraved book illustrations.

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