The Vision of Saint Eustace

The Vision of Saint Eustace

Anonymous, German, 16th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Copying prints by renowned masters became a seminal part of artistic education in the late fifteenth century, enabling young artists to acquire a graphic vocabulary and develop a style of their own. This unfinished drawing, copied from Dürer’s engraving of Saint Eustace’s conversion (see 19.73.65), was likely completed by a novice. The draftsman first traced the outlines of the print in black chalk before reinforcing them in ink and then painstakingly filling in the forms with minute pen strokes of hatching and cross-hatching. Despite his best efforts, some passages, such as the horse’s hind leg, appear flat and awkward compared to Dürer’s original.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Vision of Saint EustaceThe Vision of Saint EustaceThe Vision of Saint EustaceThe Vision of Saint EustaceThe Vision of Saint Eustace

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.