Ornament Print with Schweifwerk and Two (Allegorical?) Figures

Esaias von Hulsen

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This rare, intricate print shows Esaias von Hulsen at his best. Von Hulsen was active as a goldsmith in Stuttgart, but we mainly know him through his ornament prints, which he began producing in the early seventeenth century. Curiously, he seemed to work almost exclusively in the blackwork technique, although he used engraved lines for certain details. In this horizontally oriented panel, he presents a complicated asymmetrical pattern of so-called Schweifwerk in white on a dark ground. Within the maze of lines, he introduced a male and female figure, both in courtly costumes, which seem somewhat archaic. Two birds, a cornucopia, and pieces of fruit have also been interspersed between the Schweifwerk pattern. Whether this design is purely decorative or whether it has an allegorical meaning, for example, is unclear.

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