Quatrefoil Design in Blackwork, from Varii Generis Opera Aurifabris Necessaria

Quatrefoil Design in Blackwork, from Varii Generis Opera Aurifabris Necessaria

Paul Birckenhultz

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ornamental design in quatrefoil at center, with eight-pointed floral shape in the middle, flanked by a bird at left and at right with an insect at upper left of quatrefoil. In the black background, grotesques with putti heads at lower left and right, and dragons at upper left and right. From a series of six plates of ornamental designs.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Quatrefoil Design in Blackwork, from Varii Generis Opera Aurifabris NecessariaQuatrefoil Design in Blackwork, from Varii Generis Opera Aurifabris NecessariaQuatrefoil Design in Blackwork, from Varii Generis Opera Aurifabris NecessariaQuatrefoil Design in Blackwork, from Varii Generis Opera Aurifabris NecessariaQuatrefoil Design in Blackwork, from Varii Generis Opera Aurifabris Necessaria

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.