Two Venetian magistrates standing in front of the Palazzo Ducale, from the 'Divers portraits gravés à l'eau-forte et dediés à M.Dominique Corvi'

Two Venetian magistrates standing in front of the Palazzo Ducale, from the 'Divers portraits gravés à l'eau-forte et dediés à M.Dominique Corvi'

Giovanni David

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This print, that depicts two Venetian magistrates standing in front of the Palazzo Ducale (Venice), is from a series of twelve 'Divers portraits' dedicated to Domenico Corvi, David's teacher in Rome. All of the figures pertain to Venice and its environs and reflect the sophistication and theatricality that characterized the city's culture in the eighteenth century. Along the bottom of this print is an inscription taken from the work of the French satirist Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (published from 1666) that addresses society's morals and customs.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Two Venetian magistrates standing in front of the Palazzo Ducale, from the 'Divers portraits gravés à l'eau-forte et dediés à M.Dominique Corvi'Two Venetian magistrates standing in front of the Palazzo Ducale, from the 'Divers portraits gravés à l'eau-forte et dediés à M.Dominique Corvi'Two Venetian magistrates standing in front of the Palazzo Ducale, from the 'Divers portraits gravés à l'eau-forte et dediés à M.Dominique Corvi'Two Venetian magistrates standing in front of the Palazzo Ducale, from the 'Divers portraits gravés à l'eau-forte et dediés à M.Dominique Corvi'Two Venetian magistrates standing in front of the Palazzo Ducale, from the 'Divers portraits gravés à l'eau-forte et dediés à M.Dominique Corvi'

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.