Candlestick with Two Ignudi on Top of a Vase with Lion Heads

Anonymous, Italian, 16th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a candlestick with two ignudi seen from the back, supporting a basin and standing on top of a vase. The vase is decorated is decorated with masks in the shape of lion's heads. The foot of the candlestick has a nautical theme and is decorated with doplhins, masks and harps. From a series of designs for candlesticks in the Antique manner, thought to have been made by an anonymous artist who published his designs through Antonio Salamanca (1552), and later Lafreri (ca. 1573). A second series exists by the renowned engraver Enea Vico, but it is unclear which was the first to be issued. While Bartsch gives the primacy of the designs to Vico, Fuhring has argued for a reverse order based on the relative poor quality of Vico's prints.

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