Embroidery Pattern with Seven Six-pointed Stars and Four Corner Pieces

Embroidery Pattern with Seven Six-pointed Stars and Four Corner Pieces

Albrecht Dürer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Embroidery pattern made up out of so-called knot work. The main pattern has a circular shape and is presented in white on a dark ground. The knotted ropes or straps form six-pointed stars: one in the middle and six surrounding it. On all four corners another, leaf-shaped ornament has been added which sticks out of the circle. The tips of the bottom two leaves fall outside of the image.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Embroidery Pattern with Seven Six-pointed Stars and Four Corner PiecesEmbroidery Pattern with Seven Six-pointed Stars and Four Corner PiecesEmbroidery Pattern with Seven Six-pointed Stars and Four Corner PiecesEmbroidery Pattern with Seven Six-pointed Stars and Four Corner PiecesEmbroidery Pattern with Seven Six-pointed Stars and Four Corner Pieces

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.