The Return of Joseph

The Return of Joseph

John Michael Rysbrack

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing belongs to a group by Rysbrack inspired by the Old Testament story of Joseph, although the traditional title is puzzling, since Joseph never returned to Canaan from Egypt in the Genesis account. The short beardless youth may be Joseph’s younger brother Benjamin, in which case the image could represent the moment that Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers in Egypt (Genesis 45.14). The group around the altar at left echoes elements found in carved relief overmantles that Rysbrack made for Clandon Park, Surrey, and Houghton Hall, Norfolk in the 1720s. His ultimate source was an antique sculpture titled "Sacrifice of a Bull" reproduced in engraving for Bernard de Montfaucon’s book "L’Antiquité Expliquée" (1719).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.