Cybele and Three Attendants

Antoine Léonard Du Pasquier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The sculptor Du Pasquier studied at the Académie de France in Rome at the same time as Jacques Louis David. A similar idealization and simplification of the figure is notable in the artists’ respective bodies of work. This design in the form of a lunette sets the goddess Cybele with three attendants in a shallow space, suggesting that the artist intended it for a bas-relief in an architectural setting. The goddess, associated with the earth, sits atop a pedestal receiving offerings. Du Pasquier denotes her strength with a crown shaped like a fortress, and her fertility with abundant flowers and wheat, likely in emulation of ancient Roman sculptures of the goddess.

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