Perspectival Drawing of a Cradle 1500 - 1546

Peter Flötner rendered this tiny pen and ink drawing of a cradle sometime in the first half of the 16th century. As a form, the Renaissance cradle speaks to the role of women which was primarily understood through motherhood, and also the vulnerability of children. Flötner was working in a moment when new scientific thought and mathematical precision were transforming artistic representation. This drawing, with its perspectival exactitude, elevates the quotidian object to a subject worthy of careful study. We might consider how the artist—who was also a goldsmith—brought both a craftsman’s attention to detail and an artist’s perspective to the act of design. Rather than offering a traditional symbolic image, Flötner’s drawing engages with the radical idea that the domestic sphere, and even the furniture within it, could be a site of artistic exploration and innovation. This reminds us that art and life are not separate, but deeply intertwined.