Scene with Galants at a Banquet in a Circle at Center

Scene with Galants at a Banquet in a Circle at Center

Theodor de Bry

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A scene with cavorting couples before a banquet, contained in a circle at center. At right, a couple with the man holding a knife walks left before a lute player. At lower left, a seated couple with the woman playing the lute. Around the central circle, ornamental floral designs with grotesque rabbits emerging from scrolling tendrils at upper and lower left corners. The scene in the circle is a reverse copy after a print by Jan Sadeler, after Maarten de Vos (Hollstein 558).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Scene with Galants at a Banquet in a Circle at CenterScene with Galants at a Banquet in a Circle at CenterScene with Galants at a Banquet in a Circle at CenterScene with Galants at a Banquet in a Circle at CenterScene with Galants at a Banquet in a Circle at Center

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.