Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent Wearing the Jewel-Studded Helmet

Anonymous, Italian, Venetian, 16th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The magnificent four-tiered helmet that Suleyman wears was the centerpiece of a group of jeweled regalia produced by Venetian goldsmiths in conjunction with German entrepreneurs to sell to the Ottoman ruler. Modeled on the three-tiered tiara of the pope, this seemingly imperial headgear was meant to signal Suleyman’s right to universal sovereignty. Suleyman’s Grand Vizier, Ibrahim Pasha, may have collaborated on its design. He also orchestrated Roman-style triumphal entries that included staggering displays of the sultan’s wealth as a challenge to Habsburg rule. The diamond- and pearl-encrusted helmet was put on public display in the Doge’s Palace in Venice in 1532; this must have been the occasion that prompted the artist to draw a careful study of the helmet for this woodcut.

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