Study of a Kneeling Figure (recto); Design for a Festival Chariot (verso).

Anonymous, Italian, Florentine, 16th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cropped abruptly at the top border by an early collector, this remarkably vigorous drawing seems essentially to have functioned as a drapery study, and it appears to have served for an angel or a saint. The agitated, zigzagging folds of the tunic add a highly emotive quality to the figure. The study is done with bold, repeatedly reinforced outlines, pressed onto the paper, while the interior modeling remains relatively light on the surface. In these qualities, as well as in the choice of the red chalk medium, the study seems very close to the drawings of Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1556), as has been suggested by a previous scholar, and possibly dates to the 1530s. Given that Pontormo's drawing style was also emulated by a later generation of Florentine artists, however, the hypothesis for an attribution should be made with caution. The verso side of this drawing offers a design for a festival chariot in pen and brown ink.

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