Ganymede

Matthias Darly

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This image comes from a set of twenty-four caricatures that Matthew and Mary Darly published in 1771. A husband-and-wife team, the Darlys developed a new British print genre--small etched caricatures of single figures against plain backgrounds, their identities indicated through dress, pose and a few props. Many of these works mocked the fashionable manners of contemporary London dandies called "macaronis," and the Darly's wares soon became known as macaroni prints no matter what their subjects. The implied Italian connection was in fact appropriate, since the basic form was inspired by Ghezzi's caricature drawings brought back from Rome by Grand Tourists. The form and subjects adapted by the Darlys tickled British tastes and broadened the scope of Ghezzi's works to include a range of social classes, known figures, and types. This etching satirizes Samuel Drybutter, bookseller in Westminster Hall.

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