The Resurrection
Philips Galle
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
In this interpretation of a dramatic moment in Christian scripture, engraved by Phillips Galle after a drawing by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and published by Hieronymus Cock, Christ appears resurrected after his death, ascending from his tomb toward heaven.[1] On the ground below, soldiers fall in disbelief. An angel floats above, having just opened Christ’s tomb. This impression of the print has been colored by an unknown artist. Thick layers of opaque watercolor have transformed the image, obscuring the printed lines and darkening the overall composition. Whereas the original, uncolored engraving (see 27.1.3) created drama through contrasting light and dark, the colored version uses gold and silver paint to create light. The sun and the halos around Christ and the angel have, for example, been painted with what appears to be thickly applied shell gold and now-tarnished silver stands in for highlights on the ridges of the folds in Christs's robes. - Olivia Dill, May 23, 2023 [1] For a reproduction of the drawing and a discussion of its translation into print, see Nadine Orenstsein, ed., Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), cat. nos. 96 and 97, pp. 221-224.
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.