Venus removing a thorn from her left foot while seated on a cloth next to trees, a hare lower right

Venus removing a thorn from her left foot while seated on a cloth next to trees, a hare lower right

Marco Dente

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This print depicts one of the compositions Raphael designed for the stufetta (bathroom) of Cardinal Bibbiena in the Vatican. The small room was richly ornamented all’antica, with grotesques and scenes representing Venus. Dente’s engraving relates to a fresco that no longer survives. Venus is shown removing a thorn from her foot, which, according to legend, caused blood to drip onto a white rose, coloring the flower red. The engraving’s rich and varied landscape, which was not part of Raphael’s original design, relies heavily on the rendering of nature in Albrecht Dürer’s engravings.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Venus removing a thorn from her left foot while seated on a cloth next to trees, a hare lower rightVenus removing a thorn from her left foot while seated on a cloth next to trees, a hare lower rightVenus removing a thorn from her left foot while seated on a cloth next to trees, a hare lower rightVenus removing a thorn from her left foot while seated on a cloth next to trees, a hare lower rightVenus removing a thorn from her left foot while seated on a cloth next to trees, a hare lower right

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.