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Object Timeline

-0001

1938

  • We acquired this object.

2013

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2024

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Drawing, Grotto in the Boboli Gardens, Florence

This is a Drawing. It was made by Unknown. It is dated ca. 1790 and we acquired it in 1938. Its medium is brush and watercolor, white gouache, pen and black ink over graphite on off-white laid paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

In the eighteenth century, many Italian artists produced views of popular tourist destinations to sell as souvenirs to travelers on the Grand Tour. This drawing shows the Grotto Grande in the Boboli Gardens of Florence. Visible within the chamber are Michelangelo’s ‘slaves’, installed at the grotto in 1585. Artificial grottos became a popular element of Italian landscape architecture during the Renaissance. Collections of exotic or unusual natural materials were arranged in gardens, creating fictive environments that blurred the delineation between art and nature.

It is credited Museum purchase through gift of various donors and from Eleanor G. Hewitt Fund.

Its dimensions are

Overall: 34.1 x 53.8 cm (13 7/16 x 21 3/16 in.) Mat: 55.9 x 71.1 cm (22 x 28 in.)

It has the following markings

Watermark: Strasburg Lily, initial W [Whatman] beneath. Slightly different design from Churchill 415. Also has Whatman in letters on the opposite side of the sheet (read from recto, left side center;kb) Verso: Stamp of the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration [Lugt 457d]

Cite this object as

Drawing, Grotto in the Boboli Gardens, Florence; Made by Unknown (Italian); Italy; brush and watercolor, white gouache, pen and black ink over graphite on off-white laid paper; Overall: 34.1 x 53.8 cm (13 7/16 x 21 3/16 in.) Mat: 55.9 x 71.1 cm (22 x 28 in.); Museum purchase through gift of various donors and from Eleanor G. Hewitt Fund; 1938-88-3477

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18541129/ |title=Drawing, Grotto in the Boboli Gardens, Florence |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=26 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>