Nothing is Known of This; two figures picking up a body in front of a church, a monk singing next to them and another in the background; page 7 from the "Witches and Old Women" Album (D)

Nothing is Known of This; two figures picking up a body in front of a church, a monk singing next to them and another in the background; page 7 from the "Witches and Old Women" Album (D)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing has been interpreted as depicting a funerary procession, with two hooded monks carrying what appears to be a shrouded corpse in the foreground, followed by figures exiting a church. Strangely, the two men holding the supposed corpse barely touch it, as if it were weightless. This could be because it is not a corpse, but rather a skeleton, recently exhumed by the Inquisition. If the drawing is a reference to their persecution, its caption might refer to the "secrecy laws"—the lack of accountability and transparency—that cloaked the Inquisition’s procedures.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nothing is Known of This; two figures picking up a body in front of a church, a monk singing next to them and another in the background; page 7 from the "Witches and Old Women" Album (D)Nothing is Known of This; two figures picking up a body in front of a church, a monk singing next to them and another in the background; page 7 from the "Witches and Old Women" Album (D)Nothing is Known of This; two figures picking up a body in front of a church, a monk singing next to them and another in the background; page 7 from the "Witches and Old Women" Album (D)Nothing is Known of This; two figures picking up a body in front of a church, a monk singing next to them and another in the background; page 7 from the "Witches and Old Women" Album (D)Nothing is Known of This; two figures picking up a body in front of a church, a monk singing next to them and another in the background; page 7 from the "Witches and Old Women" Album (D)

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.