Cœnotaphiorum (16)

Cœnotaphiorum (16)

Hans Vredeman de Vries

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Freestanding funerary monument for a man and a woman in an interior. The effigies of a sleeping man and woman have been placed on top of the rectangular tomb. The tomb is crowned by a baldachin with hourglasses on the four corners. The lower end of the tomb is characterized by a harnassed figure carrying two blank coats of arms. On the left side of the print an archway is visible which provides a view of the outside. Below the image a Latin inscription is added consisting of four lines, divided over two columns.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.