Underweissung der Proportzion und stellung der possen

Underweissung der Proportzion und stellung der possen

Erhard Schön

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

As geometrical knowledge increasingly became understood as critical to the development of skills in measurement and representation, many German artists published instructional books that reflected their mastery of geometry and perspective. Collected, copied, traded, and circulated throughout European workshops, these popular books filled a gap in artisanal education by purporting to teach object makers to conceive and design complex forms in three dimensions.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.