Two Angels, Study for the Val de Grâce

Pierre Mignard

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Commissioned by Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV, Mignard made this study for the frescoed dome of the chapel of the Val de Grâce church in Paris. The ceiling as installed in situ depicts celestial glory in illusionistic concentric rings, recalling the work of Correggio (Antonio Allegri, Italian, active by 1514–died 1534) in Parma. Mignard must have made hundreds of drawings to prepare his design, but this sheet is one of only three known to exist today.

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