Horizontal Panel with a Thimble Design Below a Frieze with Three Scenes in Arches

Horizontal Panel with a Thimble Design Below a Frieze with Three Scenes in Arches

Johann Theodor de Bry

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Panel with a thimble design showing a female figures holding up a feather between two medallions. Above, a frieze with three scenes with couples under arches, on a backwork ornamental background. From a series of four plates.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Horizontal Panel with a Thimble Design Below a Frieze with Three Scenes in ArchesHorizontal Panel with a Thimble Design Below a Frieze with Three Scenes in ArchesHorizontal Panel with a Thimble Design Below a Frieze with Three Scenes in ArchesHorizontal Panel with a Thimble Design Below a Frieze with Three Scenes in ArchesHorizontal Panel with a Thimble Design Below a Frieze with Three Scenes in Arches

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.