The Virgin reading with the infant Christ; woman seated in profile facing left and reading with an arm around a child who looks out toward the viewer

The Virgin reading with the infant Christ; woman seated in profile facing left and reading with an arm around a child who looks out toward the viewer

Anonymous, Italian, 16th to early 17th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Verso not visible as the print is laid to another sheet of paper.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Virgin reading with the infant Christ; woman seated in profile facing left and reading with an arm around a child who looks out toward the viewerThe Virgin reading with the infant Christ; woman seated in profile facing left and reading with an arm around a child who looks out toward the viewerThe Virgin reading with the infant Christ; woman seated in profile facing left and reading with an arm around a child who looks out toward the viewerThe Virgin reading with the infant Christ; woman seated in profile facing left and reading with an arm around a child who looks out toward the viewerThe Virgin reading with the infant Christ; woman seated in profile facing left and reading with an arm around a child who looks out toward the viewer

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.