Project for a Monumental Tomb
16th century
Medium
Pen and brown ink, brush and blue wash or watercolor
Dimensions
sheet: 13 7/8 x 9 9/16 in. (35.3 x 24.3 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.19.76
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the heart of the 16th Italian Renaissance, this anonymous drawing, *Project for a Monumental*, captures the era's fascination with grandeur and eternity. Likely a preparatory design for a lavish funerary monument—common for popes, nobles, or dignitaries—it features intricate architectural elements intertwined with human figures, ev the tombs of St. Peter's Basilica or those by artists like Michelangelo. Such projects blended sculpture, architecture, and symbolism, immortalizing the deceased amid allegorical scenes of virtue, faith, and resurrection. Rendered in pen and brown ink with brush...