Design for a Vase with Handles, Decorated with a Festoon 1652 - 1725

Giovanni Battista Foggini rendered this vase design in pen and brown ink, with brown wash over black chalk, sometime between 1667 and 1725. The drawing is itself a kind of artifact, born of the highly skilled labor required to render such detail with precision. Note how Foggini uses the brown wash to model the vase's form, giving it a three-dimensional presence on the page. The festoon of flowers, the elaborate handles, and the ornate foot all speak to a culture of excess and refinement. Yet, the drawing also represents potential: the vase as an object to be brought into being. It hints at the many other hands that would be needed to realize this design in ceramic, glass, or metal. It’s a glimpse into the division of labor between the artist who imagines, and the artisans who execute.