The hellmouth, set design from 'Il Pomo D'Oro'

Mathäus Küsel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The eighth of the twenty-three stage sets designed by Lodovico Burnacini for 'Il Pomo D'Oro, Festa Teatrale Rappresentata in Vienna Per L'Augustissime Nozze Delle Sacre Cesaree E Reali Maestà Di Leopoldo E Margherita', an opera celebrating the wedding of Emperor Leopold I and Margarita Teresa of Spain in 1666. Composed by Antonio Cesti with a libretto by Francesco Sbarra, it was first performed in July 1668 at the Theater auf der Cortina—also designed by Burnacini. This stage design shows demons flying in front of an enormous monster, whose mouth opens onto a scene of the underworld. The ferryman Charon can be seen rowing his boat along the River Styx, while a city burns in the distance.

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