Female Actor in Ballet Costume
Jean Berain
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Drawing with a design for a female ballet costume, consisting of a highly ornamented dress with vegetal motifs. The bodice of the dress is made up of strips with gems and stylized leaves, bordered by a garland of flowers and leaves. The skirt has two layers: an outer, irregular one, short on the front and long on the back, with stylized, scrolling acanthus leaves, and with ruffles on the border; the second layer of the skirt is decorated with vertical strips of stylized acanthus leaves, separated by thinner, vertical garlands with flowers and leaves, ending on separated panels, bordered by a stripe with gems and cartouches, and a lower layer of ruffles. The white underskirt has a v-shaped collar with a thin garland of flowers and leaves, and puff sleeves covering the elbows, which open up to form ruffled bell-shapes around the elbows, separated from the upper sleeves by cuffs with gems. A crown with stylized leaves and a rich bundle of large, scrolling feathers, from which hang strips of veil behind the back, adorns the head. Two laces are tied with bows around the wrists, and castanets are held in the hands, which are open to the sides. A square-toed shoe with stylized leaves peeks out from the bottom of the skirt.
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.