
Classical Subject of Fighting
John Hamilton Mortimer
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Mortimer’s bravura penwork in this sheet is characteristic, but his choice of a classical subject is unusual. The artist was known for his Romantic banditti pieces in the spirit of Salvator Rosa and his imaginative compositions featuring Oriental heads and playful monsters. In this scene, a warrior, whose pose echoes that of the Apollo Belvedere, straddles the body of a fallen companion and grasps a short sword while holding up his cloak to protect himself from primitive attackers armed with clubs and stones. Fallen horses at left indicate a recent battle, while a tiny sailboat on the horizon adds a narrative touch. Mortimer usually made detailed pen drawings of this sort in preparation for related etchings, but the present composition was not turned into a print and its literary source remains unknown.
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.