
Horizontal Panel Design with Two Young Male Figures Interspersed between Acanthus Rinceaux
Anonymous, Italian, Venetian, 17th century
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Design for a horizontal panel filled with a meandering acanthus rinceau. Two young male figures, whose lower bodies consist of acanthus leaves are interspersed between, and hold on to the meandering rinceaux.
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.