Design for a Dagger Sheath, with Executioner and Head of John the Baptist

Design for a Dagger Sheath, with Executioner and Head of John the Baptist

Heinrich Aldegrever

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Horizontal panel with design for a dagger sheath, with a scene at top showing the executioner holding the head of John the Baptist in his left hand while stepping on the body below. Under this scene is a candelabrum with scrolling tendrils and strapwork.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a Dagger Sheath, with Executioner and Head of John the BaptistDesign for a Dagger Sheath, with Executioner and Head of John the BaptistDesign for a Dagger Sheath, with Executioner and Head of John the BaptistDesign for a Dagger Sheath, with Executioner and Head of John the BaptistDesign for a Dagger Sheath, with Executioner and Head of John the Baptist

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.