Descent into Hell

Wenceslaus Hollar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 15. Descent into Hell; Christ carrying an episcopal cross, entering the doorway to Purgatory with papal arms in a niche above, met by the Devil, wearing a pope's mitre; other figures include Adam, Eve and Moses at right; after a follower of Hans Holbein.

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