Vera Effigies Guilielmi Burton / L.L. Baccalaurei

Vera Effigies Guilielmi Burton / L.L. Baccalaurei

Wenceslaus Hollar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of William Burton, half-length, standing to right, leaning on a parapet with his right arm, holding a book entitled 'Antoninus'; wearing a broad white collar over academic gown and doublet; in an oval frame, with coat of arms below at centre of inscription space; illustration to William Burton's 'A Commentary on Antoninus his Itinerary' (London: 1658)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vera Effigies Guilielmi Burton / L.L. BaccalaureiVera Effigies Guilielmi Burton / L.L. BaccalaureiVera Effigies Guilielmi Burton / L.L. BaccalaureiVera Effigies Guilielmi Burton / L.L. BaccalaureiVera Effigies Guilielmi Burton / L.L. Baccalaurei

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.