Disegni Varij di Polifilo Zancarli (Friezes)

Polifilo Giancarli

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Title page to a series of frieze designs decorated with acanthus scrolls and various figures. The title page is symmetrically organized with a title cartouche in the middle and acanthus scrolls on both sides. The title cartouche is flanked by female hybrid creatures with wings for arms and a lower body consisting of acanthus leaves. Two bears are depicted on the outside of the frieze. Both the bears and the female creatures are attacked by snakes whose bodies blend in with the acanthus scrolls.

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