Horizontal Landscape with the remains of the Nymphaeum, mistakenly identified as the Temple of Minerva Medica in Rome, from the series 'Ruinarum variarum fabricarum delineationes pictoribus caeterisque id genus artificibus multum utiles'

Horizontal Landscape with the remains of the Nymphaeum, mistakenly identified as the Temple of Minerva Medica in Rome, from the series 'Ruinarum variarum fabricarum delineationes pictoribus caeterisque id genus artificibus multum utiles'

Lambert Suavius

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Horizontal plate with a depiction of the remains of a Nymphaeum, historically mistaken for the Temple of Minerva Medica in Rome. The building is depicted as seen from the South, from what is now the Via Giovanni Giolitti. Its foundations are partially burried and the building is covered in plants. The dome of the building is more complete in this depiction than in its modern-day state of preservation. This is congruous with other sixteenth and seventeenth depictions of the building, suggesting that this depiction if based on an in situ obervation of the structure. 'Ruinarum variarum fabricarum delineationes pictoribus caeterisque id genus artificibus multum utiles' is a print series published by Gerard de Jode, containing depictions of buildings from Classical Antiquity, set in stylized landscapes. The plates in the series can be divided in two groups: seventeen plates are landscape scenes, which contain ruines of identifiable buildings. Fifteen plates stand out from these atmospheric landscapes, and can be identified as close (sometimes reversed) copies after an Italian print series, previously attriputed to the Master G. A. with the Caltrop, and first published in Rome between 1530 and 1550. The prints also depict buildings from Roman Antiquity, ranging from triumphal arches to bath houses, temples and palaces in Italy, France and Spain. Some of the buildings have been artificially reconstructed based on Medieval descriptions, while others are depicted in their ruinous states.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Horizontal Landscape with the remains of the Nymphaeum, mistakenly identified as the Temple of Minerva Medica in Rome, from the series 'Ruinarum variarum fabricarum delineationes pictoribus caeterisque id genus artificibus multum utiles'Horizontal Landscape with the remains of the Nymphaeum, mistakenly identified as the Temple of Minerva Medica in Rome, from the series 'Ruinarum variarum fabricarum delineationes pictoribus caeterisque id genus artificibus multum utiles'Horizontal Landscape with the remains of the Nymphaeum, mistakenly identified as the Temple of Minerva Medica in Rome, from the series 'Ruinarum variarum fabricarum delineationes pictoribus caeterisque id genus artificibus multum utiles'Horizontal Landscape with the remains of the Nymphaeum, mistakenly identified as the Temple of Minerva Medica in Rome, from the series 'Ruinarum variarum fabricarum delineationes pictoribus caeterisque id genus artificibus multum utiles'Horizontal Landscape with the remains of the Nymphaeum, mistakenly identified as the Temple of Minerva Medica in Rome, from the series 'Ruinarum variarum fabricarum delineationes pictoribus caeterisque id genus artificibus multum utiles'

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.