Horizontal Panel with Three Thimble Designs and Two Medallions

Johann Theodor de Bry

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Panel with two designs for thimbles at top left and right, and a third thimble design between two medallions at bottom. The upper two thimbles despict biblical scenes, including Psalm XXXVII at right. The thimble at bottom center has a decorative pattern, with the inscription MIRIAM. The medallion at left depicts two hands holding a cornucopia, while the one at right has a bird feeding chicks in a nest. From a series of four plates.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art