A satyr reclining at the foot of a staute of Priapus, goats at the right

A satyr reclining at the foot of a staute of Priapus, goats at the right

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although this work was etched in Castiglione’s native Genoa, the concentration on a mythological subject in a large lush landscape exposes the influence of the French painter Nicolas Poussin, whom the artist likely met while working in Rome in the 1630s.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A satyr reclining at the foot of a staute of Priapus, goats at the rightA satyr reclining at the foot of a staute of Priapus, goats at the rightA satyr reclining at the foot of a staute of Priapus, goats at the rightA satyr reclining at the foot of a staute of Priapus, goats at the rightA satyr reclining at the foot of a staute of Priapus, goats at the right

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.