The group of thirteen drawings by Arcimboldo representing the manufacture of silk and now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is accompanied by a letter from the artist which allows us to understand that it is related to a plan of decoration proposed around 1587 to Baron Ferdinand Hoffmann, the new president of the imperial Hofkammer, for some rooms in his palace in Prague. The scenes of farming and handicraft would have been set in the middle of grotesques.

The thirteen drawings accompanied by their captions accurately illustrate the different stages in the production of silk.

Preview	Picture Data	Info
	Treatise on Silk Culture and Manufacture (Series of Thirteen Drawings, No. 1) c. 1586 Pen blue ink and blue wash on paper, 308 x 190 mm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
	Treatise on Silk Culture and Manufacture (Series of Thirteen Drawings, No. 2) c. 1586 Pen blue ink and blue wash on paper, 308 x 190 mm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
	Treatise on Silk Culture and Manufacture (Series of Thirteen Drawings, No. 3) c. 1586 Pen blue ink and blue wash on paper, 308 x 190 mm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
	Treatise on Silk Culture and Manufacture (Series of Thirteen Drawings, No. 4) c. 1586 Pen blue ink and blue wash on paper, 308 x 190 mm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
	Treatise on Silk Culture and Manufacture (Series of Thirteen Drawings, No. 5) c. 1586 Pen blue ink and blue wash on paper, 308 x 190 mm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
	Treatise on Silk Culture and Manufacture (Series of Thirteen Drawings, No. 5, detail) c. 1586 Pen blue ink and blue wash on paper Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
	Treatise on Silk Culture and Manufacture (Series of Thirteen Drawings, No. 6) c. 1586 Pen blue ink and blue wash on paper, 308 x 190 mm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
	Treatise on Silk Culture and Manufacture (Series of Thirteen Drawings, No. 7) c. 1586 Pen blue ink and blue wash on paper, 308 x 190 mm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
	Treatise on Silk Culture and Manufacture (Series of Thirteen Drawings, No. 8) c. 1586 Pen blue ink and blue wash on paper, 308 x 190 mm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
	Treatise on Silk Culture and Manufacture (Series of Thirteen Drawings, No. 9) c. 1586 Pen blue ink and blue wash on paper, 308 x 190 mm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
	Treatise on Silk Culture and Manufacture (Series of Thirteen Drawings, No. 10) c. 1586 Pen blue ink and blue wash on paper, 308 x 190 mm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
	Treatise on Silk Culture and Manufacture (Series of Thirteen Drawings, No. 11) c. 1586 Pen blue ink and blue wash on paper, 308 x 190 mm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
	Treatise on Silk Culture and Manufacture (Series of Thirteen Drawings, No. 12) c. 1586 Pen blue ink and blue wash on paper, 308 x 190 mm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
	Treatise on Silk Culture and Manufacture (Series of Thirteen Drawings, No. 13) c. 1586 Pen blue ink and blue wash on paper, 308 x 190 mm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston