1610
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
An elaborate cartouche with the Medici Arms flanked by Justice and Prudence is a 1610 by Bernardino Poccetti, a Baroque work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This drawing shows Justice and Prudence flanking the Medici arms under a grand ducal crown. Poccetti made it between 1607 and 1612, late in his career. The sheet is squared for transfer—likely for a Medici tapestry or facade. No one knows its exact use, though tapestries were common then. The first owner, a Flemish count, bought albums of Tuscan drawings in the 1700s. Look up the technique called cross-hatching.
The drawing, executed in chalk, pen, brown ink, and wash with white heightening on blue paper, depicts an elaborate cartouche featuring the Medici arms flanked by the allegorical figures of Justice, holding a sword, and Prudence, holding a mirror, beneath the grand ducal crown. The sheet is squared off, indicating the design was likely transferred for practical use. Its intended purpose remains uncertain, though it may have been created for an architectural emblem or a trompe l'oeil heraldic tapestry produced by the Medici workshop. The work reflects the dramatic style of the early Baroque…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Bernardino Poccetti (26 August 1548 – 10 October 1612), also known as Barbatelli, was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker of etchings.
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