Design for an Octagonal Table and Top (Recto); Design for altar or tomb monument (Verso)

Design for an Octagonal Table and Top (Recto); Design for altar or tomb monument (Verso)

Anonymous, Italian, 16th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing comes from an album with designs by or for an Italian cabinet maker. It shows a design for an octagonal table with two variants for its base. A client would choose either the left or right table leg, which would then most likely be tripled to form a triangular base. The octagonal entablature, shown from above, was meant to be decorated in a geometrical intarsia pattern for which different wood species would be used. In some cases, the top would even be reversible and have decorations on both sides. Tables like this one were meant as display pieces and had a (semi-) permanent location within the interior. Lighter folding tables were also in use which could be carried over to a particular location where it was of need at the time.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for an Octagonal Table and Top (Recto); Design for altar or tomb monument (Verso)Design for an Octagonal Table and Top (Recto); Design for altar or tomb monument (Verso)Design for an Octagonal Table and Top (Recto); Design for altar or tomb monument (Verso)Design for an Octagonal Table and Top (Recto); Design for altar or tomb monument (Verso)Design for an Octagonal Table and Top (Recto); Design for altar or tomb monument (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.