Blackwork Print with Birds and Grotesques Atop a Horizontal Panel, from a Series of Blackwork Prints for Goldsmiths' Work

Blackwork Print with Birds and Grotesques Atop a Horizontal Panel, from a Series of Blackwork Prints for Goldsmiths' Work

Etienne Carteron

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Symmetrical blackwork design with a large horizontal panel at center, above two smaller panels and a ring bezel, all in Schweifwerk patterns. At top, grotesques and birds eat from a bowl of fruit, while sea creatures hang from lines at the sides. Plate 7 from a series of eight plates published in Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne (Ain) with blackwork designs for goldsmiths' work.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Blackwork Print with Birds and Grotesques Atop a Horizontal Panel, from a Series of Blackwork Prints for Goldsmiths' WorkBlackwork Print with Birds and Grotesques Atop a Horizontal Panel, from a Series of Blackwork Prints for Goldsmiths' WorkBlackwork Print with Birds and Grotesques Atop a Horizontal Panel, from a Series of Blackwork Prints for Goldsmiths' WorkBlackwork Print with Birds and Grotesques Atop a Horizontal Panel, from a Series of Blackwork Prints for Goldsmiths' WorkBlackwork Print with Birds and Grotesques Atop a Horizontal Panel, from a Series of Blackwork Prints for Goldsmiths' Work

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.