Ruin of a Palace Facade [Palatium M. Agrippa] from the series 'Ruinarum variarum fabricarum delineationes pictoribus caeterisque id genus artificibus multum utiles'

Lambert Suavius

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Frontal view of the façade of a palace, said to be that of Emperor Marcus Agrippa. The rusticated façade consists of three stories crowned by an attica with arches and small round windows. The façade is divided in four bays each with a window or door open to the exterior. Double Doric pillars flank the windows. Along the sides and top of the building damage is visible. It is not clear whether this rendition is based on a specific building in Rome, or whether the printmaker relied on his own imagination, based on a description of the palace in an historic source. This print and several others in this series published by Gerard de Jode were copied after a group of Italian architectural prints, previously attriputed to the Master G. A. with the Caltrop, and first published in Rome between 1530 and 1550. The prints 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

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.