Mohammed and the Monk Sergius

Mohammed and the Monk Sergius

Lucas van Leyden

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The subject of this print is a rarely illustrated episode from the popular medieval book The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. One night, while Mohammed, the monk's student, was asleep, his men killed the hermit with Mohammed's own sword and put it back into its sheath. As Mohammed awoke, they persuaded him that he was the killer. Master storyteller Lucas van Leyden takes great delight in describing every detail, from the Mohammed's distinctive clothing to individual leaves on the tree in the middle ground and further to the castles in the background.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mohammed and the Monk SergiusMohammed and the Monk SergiusMohammed and the Monk SergiusMohammed and the Monk SergiusMohammed and the Monk Sergius

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.