
Design for a fountain with an obelisk
Anonymous, 18th century
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Neoclassical fountain in the style of Delafosse, Boullée and Ledoux. The fountain is placed on a plateau and has the shape of an obelisk on a pedestal. Water emerges on all four sides (only three sides are visible). The right and left sides of the obelisks are adorned with the bow of a ship. On the side facing the viewer this element is replaced by the French royal crest. Below it a panel with a pseudo inscription has been placed.
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.