Saint Florian

Casper

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This sheet, pasted into the inside of a book cover, is one of nine associated with Casper, a publisher and woodcutter working in Regensburg and Ulm during the latter half of the fifteenth century. His printed signature appears at the lower left. Saint Florian served in the Roman army in Austria in the third century and was martyred by drowning during Diocletian's reign. The city of Regensburg venerated Saint Florian as a protector against fire. He is shown here larger than life extinguishing a blaze with a single bucket of water.

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