Pan reclincing near a large vase set in a landscape

Pan reclincing near a large vase set in a landscape

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the 1640s, Castiglione produced a group of etchings that bring to life the world of Theocritus' 'Idylls' and Virgil's 'Eclogues', in which Pan is frequently invoked as lord of the flocks and patron of pastoral poetry. In this etching, the resting god, wearing his usual crown of pine, receives a second crown of grape leaves. The volcano must be Etna, for the rustic verse of both the Greek Theocritus (ca. 300–260 B.C.) and the Roman Virgil (70–19 B.C.) is set in Sicily.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pan reclincing near a large vase set in a landscapePan reclincing near a large vase set in a landscapePan reclincing near a large vase set in a landscapePan reclincing near a large vase set in a landscapePan reclincing near a large vase set in a landscape

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.