Design for a Sword or Dagger Handle with Putto-Head and Lion's-Head Masks

Design for a Sword or Dagger Handle with Putto-Head and Lion's-Head Masks

Theodor de Bry

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Handle design divided horizontally into two sections. At top, a winged putto head at center under a canopy and flanked by two squirrels facing inwards. Below, a lion's head flanked by grotesque scrolling tendrils that terminate is grotesque bird's heads. Above, a pair of snails.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a Sword or Dagger Handle with Putto-Head and Lion's-Head MasksDesign for a Sword or Dagger Handle with Putto-Head and Lion's-Head MasksDesign for a Sword or Dagger Handle with Putto-Head and Lion's-Head MasksDesign for a Sword or Dagger Handle with Putto-Head and Lion's-Head MasksDesign for a Sword or Dagger Handle with Putto-Head and Lion's-Head Masks

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.