Design for a sepulchral monument with a portrait bust
Medium
Pen and brown ink, red and brown wash, red chalk, over black chalk or graphite
Dimensions
sheet: 8 1/8 x 4 1/4 in. (20.6 x 10.8 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Charles and Jessie Price Gift, 2010
Accession Number
2010.103
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate 1673 drawing presents a design for a sepulchral monument, likely intended as a tomb or church memorial featuring a prominent portrait bust of a man. Created in the Flemish Baroque tradition, such preparatory studies guided sculptors in realizing elaborate funerary works that honored the deceased while expressing themes of mortality and remembrance. The sheet’s compact size suggests it served as a working sketch, capturing the monument’s architectural framework and central sculptural element in a single, unified composition. Executed in pen and brown ink with red and brown washes...