The Holy Family

Wenceslaus Hollar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The holy family; Virgin Mary seated at left, holding Christ child in her right arm; John the Baptist child at right holding crucifix and reaching out his left hand to touch object held by Christ, observed by St Joseph in the background. The print reproduces an oil painting on canvas, dated c. 1520 and given to Raphael, in the Museo del Prado, Madrid (inv. P00302). (Text from Antony Griffiths, 'The Print in Stuart Britain', BM 1998, cat. 52) This etching was made after a painting or drawing in Arundel's collection (for a discussion of the possible original, which is closer to Raphael than to Perino, see D.Jaffé and others in Apollo, CXLIV 1996, p.31).

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