A Medal Cabinet for Napoleon

Jean Guillaume Moitte

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although trained and active as a sculptor, Moitte created many designs for the decorative arts as well. He is perhaps best known for the silverware he designed in collaboration with the royal goldsmith Henri Auguste and the French firm Odiot. This medal cabinet, an apparent special commission for Napoleon Bonaparte, stands out from other works in his oeuvre. An inscription on the back reads "Donné à l’Empereur par la Ville," which may indicate that it was a gift from the city of Paris, possibly in honor of Napoleon’s elevation to the rank of emperor in 1804. The drawing is the only known record of this important commission, and it is uncertain if the piece was ever realized.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art