Study of Eleven Heads

Jacques de Gheyn II

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing is from a group of studies intended as a repertoire of figures for practice and reference. It is one of the most significant and most intact of several such sheets composed by de Gheyn, who worked primarily as a printmaker and draftsman, and was trained by Hendrick Goltzius. The drawing combines images from life (the young man viewed from several angles, blowing a conch shell) with those invented by the artist (the Medusa head and the two strange, long-haired figures, possibly Gypsies, in the center). The varied style of drawing suggests that de Gheyn created the sheet during at least two distinct periods in his career. As technical analysis reveals that he used three different types of ink, he may even have made the drawings on three separate occasions.

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