Trumpeters, from "The Triumph of Caesar"

Trumpeters, from "The Triumph of Caesar"

Jacob of Strasbourg

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1504 Bordon applied for a privilege to protect a set of woodcuts of the 'Triumph of Caesar' which he had designed ... An inscription on one of the woodcuts, dated 13 February 1503 [1504] states that it was cut by Jacob of Strassburg in Venice. See Lilian Armstrong, 'Woodcuts for liturgical books published by LucAntonio Giunta in Venice, 1499-1501'. Word & Image, vol. 17, nos. 1 & 2 (Jan.-June 2001), pp. 65-93. However, see comments by David Landau and Michael Bury in McDonald 2004, pp. 193-4 (The Print Collection of Ferdinand Columbus 1488-1539, London 2004) who suggest that Jacob and Bordon published two separate versions. The MMA version differs from that illustrated by Jean Michel Massing ('The Triumph of Caesar by Bendetto Bordon and Jacobus Argentoratensis. Its Iconography and Influence', Print Quarterly, VII, 1990, pp.4-21) in that it includes stars along the top and text along the bottom. Massing (pp. 7-8) calls the MMA prints the only known impressions of the third edition, when it had been repaired and the Latin text added.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Trumpeters, from "The Triumph of Caesar"Trumpeters, from "The Triumph of Caesar"Trumpeters, from "The Triumph of Caesar"Trumpeters, from "The Triumph of Caesar"Trumpeters, from "The Triumph of Caesar"

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.