The poet, standing crowned with laurel, leaning on a stone

The poet, standing crowned with laurel, leaning on a stone

Jusepe de Ribera (called Lo Spagnoletto)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dressed in voluminous robes, crowned with laurel, and leaning on a stone with head in hand, The Poet is one of Ribera's most striking images made early in the artist's career. The iconography, a synthesis of the attributes of Melancholy and Poetry, has been explored in detail by scholars, who have found literary parallels ranging from verses by Walther von der Vogelweide (1170?–1230) to works by Petrarch and Lorenzo de' Medici. Another suggestion that the poet is Virgil seems plausible, especially since his tomb was traditionally thought to be in Naples. Generally identified with a columbarium, or dovecote mausoleum, above the 'Grotto' or tunnel of Posilipo, the purported burial place of the famous poet was a tourist attraction beginning at least in the sixteenth century. A well-known legend had it that on top of the tomb grew a bay tree that continued to blossom over the centuries while its roots forced their way through the stone, causing cracks to appear.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The poet, standing crowned with laurel, leaning on a stoneThe poet, standing crowned with laurel, leaning on a stoneThe poet, standing crowned with laurel, leaning on a stoneThe poet, standing crowned with laurel, leaning on a stoneThe poet, standing crowned with laurel, leaning on a stone

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.