Hope, from the Cardinal Virtues

Hope, from the Cardinal Virtues

Nicolaes de Bruyn

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A female figure Hope is depicted praying with an anchor before her and a tree at right behind her, framed in an oval. Surrounding the oval, ornament design with a fish at left and right and four dragons above. From a series of four plates.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hope, from the Cardinal VirtuesHope, from the Cardinal VirtuesHope, from the Cardinal VirtuesHope, from the Cardinal VirtuesHope, from the Cardinal Virtues

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.