Oval Blackwork Print with Birds, Insects and Fruits

Oval Blackwork Print with Birds, Insects and Fruits

Claes Jansz. Visscher

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Dutch print publisher Claes Jansz. Visscher collected various samples of blackwork prints from all over Europe and published them together as one series. This particular print is a copy in reverse after Hertzog von Brin, an artist who worked at the Viennese court. He is mainly known through his ornament prints which all relate to the goldsmiths trade. The print shows an oval design decorated with small motifs, predominantly recognizable as birds, insects and fruits. The design was most likely meant as a model for the outer decoration of a pendant or watch case.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Oval Blackwork Print with Birds, Insects and FruitsOval Blackwork Print with Birds, Insects and FruitsOval Blackwork Print with Birds, Insects and FruitsOval Blackwork Print with Birds, Insects and FruitsOval Blackwork Print with Birds, Insects and Fruits

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.