The Investigation of the Rainbow, Design for Physica Sacra Plate

A pen and wash drawing of a rocky mountain landscape with a tall waterfall cascading down a cliff face. Two circular diagrams with construction lines float in the sky above, and a small rainbow-framed circle with a seated figure appears at lower left. Arched stone formations stand at the lower right beside evergreen trees.

Artist

Johann Melchior Füssli

Date

before 1731

Medium

Brush and wash, pen and brown, black ink on cream laid paper

Source

Smithsonian (Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum)

Size

1761 × 2654 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): Smithsonian Institution, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum