Ornamental Design with a Mask and an Eagle between Two Fauns below

Ornamental Design with a Mask and an Eagle between Two Fauns below

Heinrich Aldegrever

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ornamental design with mask at center flanked by two cornucopias. Below, there is an eagle between two fauns who hold a cloth that drapes behind the eagle. At the top, two eagles perch on the cornucopias, facing inwards.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ornamental Design with a Mask and an Eagle between Two Fauns belowOrnamental Design with a Mask and an Eagle between Two Fauns belowOrnamental Design with a Mask and an Eagle between Two Fauns belowOrnamental Design with a Mask and an Eagle between Two Fauns belowOrnamental Design with a Mask and an Eagle between Two Fauns below

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.