Spired Gothic Monument

Joseph Michael Gandy

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This spired structure adorned with gothic pinnacles and niches is reminiscent of the "Eleanor Crosses," twelve monuments that Edward I erected to mark the spot where his wife, Queen Eleanor's, body rested each night on its way to burial in 1290. These were first made of wood between 1291 to 1294, then replicated in stone. Three survive today, the most famous example, at Charing Cross, London, a Victorian replica.

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