Designs for Brackets with Silverwork

Jean Berain

late 17th century · Etching and Engraving · Drawings and Prints

Etching and engraving with designs for brackets with silverwork, designed by Jean I Berain. Entrusted with drawings for costumes, stage sets, and royal ceremonies at the 'Academie Royale de la Musique' since 1680, Berain's ingenious creations took acanthus and laurel leaves, palmettes and grotesques, mixing them with dancers, acrobats, monkeys and satyrs, to create his own, imaginative, theatrical world. His designs were multiplied and disseminated by means of engravings, his design motifs and manner objects becoming highly influential in the closing years of the seventeenth century. This design contains five designs for bracquets in the manner of the time, made up of scrolling strapwork decorated with scrolling acanthus leaves and thin garlands with flowers and leaves, ornamental vases, grotesques, and mythical creatures with human faces and butterfly wings.

Artist

Jean Berain

Date

late 17th century

Medium

Etching and Engraving

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011