St. John the Baptist Holding the Lamb

Hans Baldung (called Hans Baldung Grien)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A master of the woodcut, Baldung was the most important artist to emerge from the studio of the greatest innovator in the medium, Albrecht Dürer. The intensity of this image is typical of Baldung's work. Encircled by a vibrant radiating halo, the saint as well as the Lamb of God in his lap confront the viewer with their direct stares. Baldung focused on the single figure of John the Baptist rather than setting the saint in a landscape, as was more common at the time. The saint occupies nearly all of the sheet; in fact his toes nearly protrude past the borderline. The large saint with a brilliant halo was no doubt inspired by Dürer's small engravings of monumental Madonnas engraved in 1519.

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