Cupid and Minerva

Cupid and Minerva

Richard Cosway

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Demonstrating close study of classical and Renaissance sources, Cosway imagines an intimate moment in the life of the ancient gods, showing the warrior goddess Minerva teaching the boy Cupid how to aim his bow. An early biographer called it a "splendid work...powerfully drawn...the pose...admirable, the grouping remarkable...a particularly fine specimen of the master's firmest, sharpest work."

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.