Design for a Funeral Monument (Preparatory Drawing for a Print)

Design for a Funeral Monument (Preparatory Drawing for a Print)

Johann Jakob Schübler

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing is a preparatory sheet by Schübler for a print in a series devoted to designs for funerary monuments. The current design presents a funerary monument placed in a deep niche decorated with draperies lined with ermine fur. The monument rests on top of a platform which has two steps on which candles and incense burners have been placed. The base of the monument is U-shaped and is decorated with draperies. A tomb is placed on top and carries a crowned coat of arms and a panel for an inscription. Two mourning putti are placed on either side. Rising over the tomb is a tapered column decorated by a trophy with symbols of good rulership and crowned by a bust of a Roman emperor.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a Funeral Monument (Preparatory Drawing for a Print)Design for a Funeral Monument (Preparatory Drawing for a Print)Design for a Funeral Monument (Preparatory Drawing for a Print)Design for a Funeral Monument (Preparatory Drawing for a Print)Design for a Funeral Monument (Preparatory Drawing for a Print)

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.