Square Panel with Vegetal Scrollwork, Flowers and Fruits

Square Panel with Vegetal Scrollwork, Flowers and Fruits

Bernhard Zan

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sheet from a series of 40 goldsmith's designs, published by Zan in 1581 and again in 1584 by Stephan Hermann. The print shows a square panel with an all-over pattern of vegetal scrollwork. In the center of the design a calyx is hung upside down from which swirling scrolls spring forth. An abundance of leaves, flowers and fruits is attached to smaller stems. On the verso of the sheet a pattern for what appears to be a pleaded object, perhaps a fan, has been drawn in pen and ink.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Square Panel with Vegetal Scrollwork, Flowers and FruitsSquare Panel with Vegetal Scrollwork, Flowers and FruitsSquare Panel with Vegetal Scrollwork, Flowers and FruitsSquare Panel with Vegetal Scrollwork, Flowers and FruitsSquare Panel with Vegetal Scrollwork, Flowers 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.