Galatea escaping Polyphemus; he is seated on a rock holding a staff and pipes and looking towards Galatea at right riding a shell pulled by two dolphins, Cupid flying above

Galatea escaping Polyphemus; he is seated on a rock holding a staff and pipes and looking towards Galatea at right riding a shell pulled by two dolphins, Cupid flying above

Anonymous, Italian, 16th to early 17th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Copy of a print by Marco Dente, see 26.50.1(133).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Galatea escaping Polyphemus; he is seated on a rock holding a staff and pipes and looking towards Galatea at right riding a shell pulled by two dolphins, Cupid flying aboveGalatea escaping Polyphemus; he is seated on a rock holding a staff and pipes and looking towards Galatea at right riding a shell pulled by two dolphins, Cupid flying aboveGalatea escaping Polyphemus; he is seated on a rock holding a staff and pipes and looking towards Galatea at right riding a shell pulled by two dolphins, Cupid flying aboveGalatea escaping Polyphemus; he is seated on a rock holding a staff and pipes and looking towards Galatea at right riding a shell pulled by two dolphins, Cupid flying aboveGalatea escaping Polyphemus; he is seated on a rock holding a staff and pipes and looking towards Galatea at right riding a shell pulled by two dolphins, Cupid flying above

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.