Female Term, seated figure, and fantastical creature (recto); Satyr and study of a woman and child (verso)

Female Term, seated figure, and fantastical creature (recto); Satyr and study of a woman and child (verso)

Andrés de Melgar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The figure with outstretched arms in the upper left corner resembles an ancient Roman sculpture of Diana of Ephesus that was known through small-scale replicas. The goddess became a popular motif in Renaissance grotesque decorations, such as the frescoes in the Vatican Loggie and the decor of Prince Andrea Doria’s palace in Genoa. Like the leafy acanthus pictured in this drawing, she also appears in prints made by Agostino Veneziano (on view nearby). In the space of a single page, the author of this drawing quotes and elaborates on a range of printed sources, sketching his subjects in varying states of finish. At the center, he imagines a fantastical winged creature in profile, while a more schematic version composed of swift and abbreviated pen strokes looks on from below.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Female Term, seated figure, and fantastical creature (recto); Satyr and study of a woman and child (verso)Female Term, seated figure, and fantastical creature (recto); Satyr and study of a woman and child (verso)Female Term, seated figure, and fantastical creature (recto); Satyr and study of a woman and child (verso)Female Term, seated figure, and fantastical creature (recto); Satyr and study of a woman and child (verso)Female Term, seated figure, and fantastical creature (recto); Satyr and study of a woman and child (verso)

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.