Allegories of Wisdom and Truth Leading the Infant Arts to America

John James Barralet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This design for an emblematic print has a section inserted at center, demonstrating that Barralet reworked the image. Allegorical figures that symbolize Wisdom (armored with helmet and spear), and Truth (an angel with flames on his forehead), introduce putti carrying a brush and palette, architectural design, and sculpture, to America (a woman holding a cap of Liberty. The latter is attended by an eagle perched on an emblematic shield, a cornucopia, beehive, and goods piled near a sailing ship).

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