Two Genii with a Skull and Grasshoppers

Two Genii with a Skull and Grasshoppers

Nicolaes de Bruyn

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Two putti reclining inwards, leaning on a skull at center. Above, an ornament with a putto mask, flanked by two grasshoppers. In upper left and right corners, vases with flowers. From a series of six plates.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Two Genii with a Skull and GrasshoppersTwo Genii with a Skull and GrasshoppersTwo Genii with a Skull and GrasshoppersTwo Genii with a Skull and GrasshoppersTwo Genii with a Skull and Grasshoppers

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.