Cross-shaped Pendant and Four Other Motifs

Giovanni Battista Costantini

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giovanni Battista Costantini shows a real progression in his print designs in blackwork. In 1615 he published a series which focuses entirely on his goldsmiths designs in blackwork. Seven years later he published the series in which this sheet appears and in which he combined blackwork and engraving to create an attractive presentation method for his designs. The print shows designs for five elements of goldsmith's work placed in a landscape with two cupids and two naked men (ignudi). In the center a cross-shaped pendant is presented. It is held up by two cupids, who each hold another motif in their other hand. On the bottom of the page, the two ignudi are seated on rocks. They each present a lunar-shaped design. A village is faintly indicated in the background, to give his landscape a real sense of depth.

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