Design for an Overdoor Decoration (recto); Rinceaux (verso)

Gregorio de' Ferrari

ca. 1670–90 · Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over traces of black chalk (recto); rinceaux in red chalk (verso) · Drawings and Prints

This sheet contains two ideas for the decoration of a frame in which a satyr takes center stage. In the design on top a satyr mask is being crowned with a laurel wreath by two cherubs while in the lower design, a vase decorated with satyr masks is placed centrally on top of the frame and is flanked by the figures of two young satyrs. Because only a small part of the frame below is shown, it is hard to tell what kind of frame this was meant to be, although the heavy ornament on top suggest that it is most likely an architectural frame for a door or a window. The artist, Gregorio de’ Ferrari, is known to have made designs for the interior, most notably in the Palazzo Rosso along the prestigious Strada Nova in Genoa. He worked there together with Domenico Piola, for whose family workshop De’ Ferrari also designed tombs, altars, textiles, silver, ship decorations and frontispieces.

Artist

Gregorio de' Ferrari

Date

ca. 1670–90

Medium

Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over traces of black chalk (recto); rinceaux in red chalk (verso)

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1967