Architectural Design for a Façade

Architectural Design for a Façade

Ferenc (Franz) Speth

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Detailed rendering of the elevation of a house. Symmetric façade with four above-ground stories and five vertical bays. A double door is placed in the central bay, flanked by round pillars supporting a tympanum which has been interrupted in the middle. Within the interruption an escutcheon carrying the inscription ‘A / MDCC / XXXIX’ is visible. The façade is further decorated with rocaille ornaments, vases, two figurative scenes relating to painting (Zeuxis and Parrhasius on the right), telamons and masks.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Architectural Design for a FaçadeArchitectural Design for a FaçadeArchitectural Design for a FaçadeArchitectural Design for a FaçadeArchitectural Design for a Façade

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.