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Preview image of work. pen and brown ink and brown wash on paper,  Design for a Circular Dish 56
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1811.56

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Design for a Circular Dish

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Artist

Artist Unidentified

Title

Design for a Circular Dish

Creation Date

1500-1600

Century

mid-16th century

Dimensions

6 1/4 in. x 6 1/4 in. (15.88 cm. x 15.88 cm.)

Object Type

drawing

Creation Place

Europe, Germany

Medium and Support

pen and brown ink and brown wash on paper

Credit Line

Bequest of the Honorable James Bowdoin III

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

1811.56

Inscribed with the name of John Smibert, this sheet documents the artist’s ownership of historic European drawings in colonial-era Boston, though the work was not created by him. Smibert, patronized by the Bowdoin family, played a key role in transporting European master drawings to the American colonies, originally with the intention of helping Bishop George Berkeley to set up an institution of higher learning in the New World. The design depicted here, picturing a frieze, which faces outward at the viewer, of a well-protected convoy with pack animals and livestock, was likely created by artists in the region of Nuremberg, Germany for the foot or cover of a standing cup, a luxurious drinking vessel made of silver, carved stone, or other precious materials. A richly decorated, mythological soapstone carving by Peter Flotner (1485–1546) at the Harvard Art Museums shows a circular design of similar size.

Additional Media

Additional Image verso
verso


Keywords: design   animal(s)   work on paper   master drawing   landscape with figures