Disegni Varij di Polifilo Zancarli (Friezes)

Polifilo Giancarli

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a frieze with a meandering acanthus scroll with two big loops. On the right side of the frieze a satyr grabs a female hybrid creature whose lower body transforms into the acanthus scroll. To the left two fantastical creature, variants to a bird and snake, are fighting. Further to the left a dragon and a snake are interspersed between the scrolls. The frieze is closed off on the left side by the figure of a putto.

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