Chariot of Apollo

Chariot of Apollo

Sir James Thornhill

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

As the leading decorative painter in Britain, Thornhill created ceiling and wall decorations for Chatworth (1702–8), the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich (1707–21), Hampton Court (1715) and Blenheim (1716), as well as designing a scheme for the cupola of St. Paul’s Cathedral cupola (1714–17). This image has not been connected to a particular commission, but its primary elements appear in many Thornhill ceilings (Apollo’s chariot, for example, is found in the lower hall at Greenwich). Basing his draftsmanship on Italian models, the artist outlined forms fluidly in pen before shading them delicately with brush and wash.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.