Cœnotaphiorum (8)

Hans Vredeman de Vries

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Funerary monument, shape like a tomb and placed against a wall taberbacle on the right side of the print. The lower tier of the monument is characterized by sphinxes crowned by composite capitals carrying the upper part of the monument. Through a narrow opening between the roof structure and the lower tomb structure, an effigy of a sleeping woman (gisant) is visible. Above her head, a diamond shaped blank coat of arms is visible, divided into quarters with a crown on top. Below the image is a Latin text, made up out of four lines, divided over two columns.

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