
Blackwork Print with Two Vertical Panels Flanking an Oval at Center with Four Small Circles
Hans de Bull
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Small blackwork print with an oval at center with symmetrical Schweifwerk, flanked by vertical panels with different patterns. Above and below pairs of medallions with various designs.
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
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.