Blackwork Print with a Symmetrical Schweifwerk Pattern

Blackwork Print with a Symmetrical Schweifwerk Pattern

Claes Jansz. Visscher

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Blackwork print with six motifs. In the center two horizontal panels are depicted, decorated with modern grotesque motifs. The one on the top shows what appears to be a stilized anvil, combined with bundles of fruit on a garland. The one below shows a big bird surrounded by smaller motifs. The panels are flanked on both sides by two ring bezels which have decorated with different Schweifwerk patterns. The print is a copy after Hans de Bull.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Blackwork Print with a Symmetrical Schweifwerk PatternBlackwork Print with a Symmetrical Schweifwerk PatternBlackwork Print with a Symmetrical Schweifwerk PatternBlackwork Print with a Symmetrical Schweifwerk PatternBlackwork Print with a Symmetrical Schweifwerk Pattern

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.