The Trojans pulling the wooden horse into the city

The Trojans pulling the wooden horse into the city

Giulio Bonasone

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Since the Trojans had been persuaded that bringing the horse into their city would lead to the Greeks' defeat, the walls were breached and the horse was wheeled in, with the most valiant Greek soldiers hidden inside. This engraving is based on a drawing by Primaticcio, now in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, that probably represents an early idea for the fresco of the defeat of Troy in the Galerie d'Ulisse at Fontainebleau (1541–47).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Trojans pulling the wooden horse into the cityThe Trojans pulling the wooden horse into the cityThe Trojans pulling the wooden horse into the cityThe Trojans pulling the wooden horse into the cityThe Trojans pulling the wooden horse into the city

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.