Vertical Panel with Three Winged Boys Carrying a Bear on a Tray

Heinrich Aldegrever

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ornamental design with three winged children or putti holding poles that support a tray with a seated bear. The bear faces right with its left paw in its mouth. A plaque bearing the date and artist's monogram hangs from the underside of the tray.

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art