Frieze with Eleven Birds and an Insect

Frieze with Eleven Birds and an Insect

Jan Collaert I

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Frieze with eleven birds perched on the ground, with a large open-beaked bird with wings spread, facing right at center. To the right of this bird, an insect.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Frieze with Eleven Birds and an InsectFrieze with Eleven Birds and an InsectFrieze with Eleven Birds and an InsectFrieze with Eleven Birds and an InsectFrieze with Eleven Birds and an Insect

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.