Design for a Proscenium or Alcove 1652 - 1725

Giovanni Battista Foggini made this pen and brown ink design for a proscenium or alcove in Italy, sometime around the late 17th or early 18th century. The drawing offers a glimpse into the world of theatrical design and interior decoration during the Baroque era. The elaborate ornamentation and the use of figures to support the archway reflect the cultural values of the time. The design emphasizes grandeur and spectacle, values embraced by the aristocracy and the church, who were major patrons of the arts. Foggini himself was the court sculptor of the Medici in Florence, who would use artwork to project their power. The design could be progressive in the sense that it’s using art to further the patron’s aims, and critiquing previous institutional norms. By researching the social and economic conditions of the time, we can better understand how the art of the period served to uphold certain social structures, and how artists navigated the expectations of their patrons.