Design for a Decorated Wall and Ceiling of a Gallery, marked with the monogram of the French King Henri III or IV

Toussaint Dubreuil

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for the decoration of a wall and ceiling, most likely with a barrel vault. On the bottom of the sheet (part of) a wall elevation is shown decorated with a large rectangular compartment in which a landscape scene is depicted. The decorations along the frame of the compartment were most likely meant to be executed in stucco. To the right cursory indications of a window bay are painted in wash. Above the wall elevation, the ceiling is divided in two parts. On the left side, a large rectangle represents the main body of the barrel vault. At its center a trompe l'oeil painting of a balcony and oculus are indicated. The trompe l'oeil is surrounded by grotesque decorations reminiscent of the Fontainebleau School designs of Rosso Fiorentino and Leonard Thiry. To the right, above the window bay, a narrower strip shows a cartouche with the letter H in the center and a small compartment with a landscape scene at either end.

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