Disegni Varij di Polifilo Zancarli (Friezes)

Polifilo Giancarli

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a frieze filled with a meandering acanthus scroll and two figure groups; one on the left and one on the right. On the left side a winged, female hybrid creature is depicted whose lower body consists of acanthus leaved and forms the beginning of the scroll. Two winged putti stay close to her while they are being harrased by a snake and a small dragon. On the right side of the frieze a satyr and a lion are placed between the scrolls. The upper body of another female hybrid creature with wings for arms springs from one of the acanthus leaves at the right end of the frieze.

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