The Death of Seneca

The Death of Seneca

Jean Guillaume Moitte

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In addition to being a sculptor, Moitte made designs for prints and decorative arts and was a prolific draftsman. This painterly sheet must date to fairly early in his career, for while it features many classicizing elements in its costumes, setting, and décor, the overall composition still favors the oblique angles of the late Baroque rather than the planar arrangement of figures that would characterize his later work.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Death of SenecaThe Death of SenecaThe Death of SenecaThe Death of SenecaThe Death of Seneca

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.