Study of a Putto Seated on a Corbel in a Shell Niche

Study of a Putto Seated on a Corbel in a Shell Niche

Carlo Maratti

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Great Hall of the Palazzo Altieri in Rome, where Maratti worked from 1674 to 1677, is punctuated by four windows along one of the upper walls. Three of the spandrels (a triangular-shaped field) above those windows have frescoes of a putto seated on a feigned corbel in a shell niche very similar to the design of the present sheet, which is a recently identified study for that part of the decoration. Several drawings for unexecuted parts of this elaborate decorative scheme are also in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For other preparatory studies by Carlo Maratti for the decoration of Palazzo Altieri in the Metropolitan Museum of Art see inv. nos. 64.295.1 and 61.169 (Virtue crowned by Honor), 66.53.3 (Allegory of Peace), 66.137 (Allegory of Divine Wisdom), and 65.206 (Plan for a Ceiling and Nude Figures).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study of a Putto Seated on a Corbel in a Shell NicheStudy of a Putto Seated on a Corbel in a Shell NicheStudy of a Putto Seated on a Corbel in a Shell NicheStudy of a Putto Seated on a Corbel in a Shell NicheStudy of a Putto Seated on a Corbel in a Shell Niche

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.