Design for the Decoration of an Oval Dish with a Bacchanal

Design for the Decoration of an Oval Dish with a Bacchanal

Filippo Lauri

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This designs for an oval dish by Filippo Lauri focuses on the decoration of the mirror of the plate, which shows a bacchanal. Some indicaton is given of the decorations on the rim. The type of object and the execution in red chalk strongly indicate that this would have been meant as an object in silver. The drawing has a strong and distinguished provenance, which demonstrates an early appreciation for this kind of Baroque design.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for the Decoration of an Oval Dish with a BacchanalDesign for the Decoration of an Oval Dish with a BacchanalDesign for the Decoration of an Oval Dish with a BacchanalDesign for the Decoration of an Oval Dish with a BacchanalDesign for the Decoration of an Oval Dish with a Bacchanal

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.