Design for a Dish with Portraits of the Roman Emperors Caesar, Claudius, and Otho

Design for a Dish with Portraits of the Roman Emperors Caesar, Claudius, and Otho

Theodor de Bry

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a dish with medallions containing the portraits of three Roman Emperors – Caesar (top), Claudius (left), and Otho (right) – around a central medallion with the title. To the left and right of the central medallion, scenes with grotesques, including two merchants being pulled on carts towards the centaur. Below, two figures sit on a basket of eggs. From a series of four plates.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a Dish with Portraits of the Roman Emperors Caesar, Claudius, and OthoDesign for a Dish with Portraits of the Roman Emperors Caesar, Claudius, and OthoDesign for a Dish with Portraits of the Roman Emperors Caesar, Claudius, and OthoDesign for a Dish with Portraits of the Roman Emperors Caesar, Claudius, and OthoDesign for a Dish with Portraits of the Roman Emperors Caesar, Claudius, and Otho

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.