Putti playing among fruit trees and vine trellises thumbnail 1
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Putti playing among fruit trees and vine trellises

Drawing
1530s
Artist/Maker
Romano, Giulio

This drawing is a design for a tapestry also in the V&A collection (T.405-1910). There are five related drawings which are studies of separate parts (former collection of Philip Pouncey; British Museum; Nottingham Art Museum, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen; Albertina, Vienna). According to Vasari, Giulio Romano executed several designs for tapestries, subsequently engraved by G. B. Ghisi. Unfortunately Ghisi’s engravings have not survived. The handling of this drawing indicates a participation of the workshop while additional white highlights in the lower half of the design suggest that the drawing has been retouched by Peter Paul Rubens.

Object details

Object type
Drawing
TitlePutti playing among fruit trees and vine trellises
Materials and techniques
Pen and ink and wash heightened with white
Brief description
Drawing, Putti playing among fruit trees and vine trellises, by Giulio Romano (workshop), Roman school, 1530s
Dimensions
  • Width: 564mm
  • Height: 438mm
Style
Roman School
Gallery label
Guilio Romano (1499-1546)
Design for a tapestry
Italian, about 1530-1540
Pen and ink and wash

This design of putti playing among fruit trees and
vines is part of a larger composition for a tapedtry.
Several tapestries exist which are close in design
to this drawing including one in the Collection
of Textiles and Dress here at the V&A. Romano
designed several suites of tapestries while he was
working in Mantua, most for the ruling Gonzaga
family. It was also for them that he designed the
Palazzo del Te in a personal and very forceful
mannerist style.

E.4586-1910 Salting Bequest
Credit line
Salting Bequest
Object history
P.H. Lankrink (Lugt 2090); bequesthed by Salting to the museum in 1910
Production
Neg No 64321.
Summary
This drawing is a design for a tapestry also in the V&A collection (T.405-1910). There are five related drawings which are studies of separate parts (former collection of Philip Pouncey; British Museum; Nottingham Art Museum, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen; Albertina, Vienna). According to Vasari, Giulio Romano executed several designs for tapestries, subsequently engraved by G. B. Ghisi. Unfortunately Ghisi’s engravings have not survived. The handling of this drawing indicates a participation of the workshop while additional white highlights in the lower half of the design suggest that the drawing has been retouched by Peter Paul Rubens.
Associated object
T.405-1910
Bibliographic references
  • Peter Ward-Jackson, Italian Drawings, London, The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1979, vol. I, pp. 74-75, cat. no. 151.
  • Peter Thornton, The Italian Renaissance Interior: 1400-1600, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1991, p. 336, fig. 366.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.4586-1910

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O781187/putti-playing-among-fruit-trees-drawing-romano-giulio/
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