Design for a Brooch with Judith Holding the Head of Holofernes

Design for a Brooch with Judith Holding the Head of Holofernes

Johann Theodor de Bry

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a brooch with an oval scene showing Judith putting the head of Holofernes in a sack on a blackwork background at center. The scene is related to a print by Jan Saenredam after a drawing by Lucas van Leyden. Three terminals emerge from the top, left and right of the central motif.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a Brooch with Judith Holding the Head of HolofernesDesign for a Brooch with Judith Holding the Head of HolofernesDesign for a Brooch with Judith Holding the Head of HolofernesDesign for a Brooch with Judith Holding the Head of HolofernesDesign for a Brooch with Judith Holding the Head of Holofernes

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.