The Bridegroom Offering a Crown to the Bride, from a "Canticum Canticorum" block book, second edition

The Bridegroom Offering a Crown to the Bride, from a "Canticum Canticorum" block book, second edition

Anonymous, Netherlandish, 15th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Canticum Canticorum (Song of Songs) was produced in a Netherlandish block-book workshop beginning in the first half of the 1460s. The love poem traditionally believed to have been composed by Solomon was interpreted allegorically by Christians as a prefiguration of Christ's love for his bride, the Church, and, by extension, for the Virgin. The block book consists of sixteen pages with two scenes on each, in two registers, like the Apocalypse. This woodcut, from a later edition with new blocks that closely followed the originals, if somewhat crudely, is the last of the thirty-two. In the upper left the bride sits upon Lebanon; she reappears in the center with two attendants. Her banderole reads: 'His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. . . . This is my beloved' (Song of Solomon 5:15, 16). Christ, as the bridegroom, replies: 'Come . . . from Lebanon, my spouse . . . you will be crowned' (Song of Solomon 4:8). The last phrase is an addition alluding to the Coronation of the Virgin.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Bridegroom Offering a Crown to the Bride, from a "Canticum Canticorum" block book, second editionThe Bridegroom Offering a Crown to the Bride, from a "Canticum Canticorum" block book, second editionThe Bridegroom Offering a Crown to the Bride, from a "Canticum Canticorum" block book, second editionThe Bridegroom Offering a Crown to the Bride, from a "Canticum Canticorum" block book, second editionThe Bridegroom Offering a Crown to the Bride, from a "Canticum Canticorum" block book, second edition

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.