Design for a Frieze with Putti Supporting a Garland, with the inital "N" inside a Wreath (related to the Arc du Carrousel)

Anonymous, French, 19th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This classicizing design for a frieze consists of four putti carrying a garland, with a laurel wreath at center. The wreath encircles the letter N for Napoleon. The prototype for this design can be found in Roman sarcophagi, and the motif was also popular during the High Renaissance. This and a second drawing in the collection (2001.753.3) can be related to the decorations of the Arc du Carrousel in Paris, built between 1806 and 1808 under the artistic direction of Charles Percier and Pierre Francois Leonard Fontaine. While they do not match the drawings precisely, four friezes on the arch closely follow the overall concept proposed in the two designs in the Museum's collection.

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