Design for a Knife Handle with a Scene from the Book of Tobit

Design for a Knife Handle with a Scene from the Book of Tobit

Johann Theodor de Bry

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a knife handle with a scenes from the Book of Tobit in an oval at center, showing two kneeling figures before a canopied bed in an interior on a blackwork background with grotesques, including two winged mermaids at bottom. Flanking the central design, biblical texts on blades with alternate finials above. From a series of twelve plates.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a Knife Handle with a Scene from the Book of TobitDesign for a Knife Handle with a Scene from the Book of TobitDesign for a Knife Handle with a Scene from the Book of TobitDesign for a Knife Handle with a Scene from the Book of TobitDesign for a Knife Handle with a Scene from the Book of Tobit

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.