Elevation of a Royal Bedroom

Anonymous, French, 17th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jean Lepautre was the older brother of the architect Antoine Le Pautre. He is mainly known for his enormous production of prints of which a large part contains designs for architecture, the interior and ornament, often based on his own designs. He devoted 10 series, comprising a total of 71 prints to designs for bedrooms, some of which contain narrative scenes while others are purely focused on the aspect of design. This drawing relates to the series ‘Alcoves à l’Italiene’ [sic] (Alcoves in the Italian manner) which was published by Pierre II Mariette around 1656-1657. It shows an elegant canopy bed, supported by caryatids and is crowned by a fleur-de-lis. This emblem of the French monarchy is used as a theme throughout the interior returning in the crown surmounting the alcove, the woodwork of the balustrade, the wallpaper and the draperies.

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