Entry of the Count of Thurn and Taxis into Hemissen

Entry of the Count of Thurn and Taxis into Hemissen

Wenceslaus Hollar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1649 the count of Thurn and Taxis inherited the postal monopoly for the Holy Roman Empire, and the next year he and his wife visited the imperial postmaster for the Netherlands, Alexandre Roelants. This plate commemorates the entry into Hemissem; three coaches and horsemen arriving along sunken avenue of trees between two lines of soldiers; cannon and trumpeters in the foreground at right, village and landscape in the background.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Entry of the Count of Thurn and Taxis into HemissenEntry of the Count of Thurn and Taxis into HemissenEntry of the Count of Thurn and Taxis into HemissenEntry of the Count of Thurn and Taxis into HemissenEntry of the Count of Thurn and Taxis into Hemissen

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.