
Cœnotaphiorum (9)
Hans Vredeman de Vries
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Freestanding funerary monument for a man, characterized by a portico made up out of composite pillars around the tomb. On top of the tomb the effigy of a sleeping man (gisant) in harnas is placed in between two statues of men holding a blank coat of arms. On the right side of the print a round arch is visible which has been closed off by a screen with balusters behind which the silhouette of a man can be made out. Below the image a Latin inscription is placed, made up out of six 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.