drawing
- Museum number
- Ff,3.194
- Description
-
Design for a decorative object, a book-rest (?); central escutcheon surmounted by a cross and cardinal's hat with a cherub above, flanked by cherubim with folded wings, a scrolled horizontal ledge below with central cherub, bearded masks below
Pen and brown ink, with grey-brown wash
- Production date
- 1649-1689
- Dimensions
-
Height: 358 millimetres
-
Width: 266 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Lit.: N. Turner, 'Italian Drawings in the BM, Roman Baroque Drawings', London, 1999, I, no. 99
Turner 1999
The drawing, which was given to Ferri when in Cracherode's collection, entered the Museum in 1799 under this same attribution. The function of the object and the material from which it was to have been made are unclear. It is described as "A design for a piece of Church plate" in the Cracherode inventory, though other identifications of its use include a decorative table and an elaborately carved sideboard or credenza. The object would appear to be a book rest, a view supported by Peter Thornton (letter to the Department of Prints and Drawings, 8 September 1995), who pointed out that the design gives only a frontal view and omits the back support. Aldiough the horizontal strip divided into four sections resembles a hinge, Thornton and James Yorke (orally) have stated independently that it is not. The flange is attached rigid to the backboard, indicating that the subdivisions in the strip above would have been merely decorative.
Merz (oral communication) believed the faintly drawn arms in the escutcheon at the centre of the upper register to be those of Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1597-1679); but there appear to be monti supporting a cross. Since the monti are an emblem of the Chigi family arms, it is possible that Cardinal Flavio Chigi (1631-93) might have been the intended recipient of the object.
Literature: Davis, 1986, p. 223.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1799
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Ff,3.194