Pendant Design with Pax Standing Before an Arch

Pendant Design with Pax Standing Before an Arch

Jan Collaert I

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vertical panel with a pendant design at center, with Pax standing on strapwork at top and holding a branch at her right side between chains that suspends the ornament from a ribbon at top. At left and right side of the ornament, female figures with insect wings hold out orbs. Plate 3 from a set of ten plates with pendant designs, with deities and strapwork backgrounds. The first edition of the series was published in Antwerp by Philips Galle in 1581 and exists in two states; two later editions – the first published by Theodoor Galle after 1600 and the second by Johannes Galle after 1636 – were also produced in Antwerp. Jan Collaert I produced several series of plates with pendant designs, a practice continued by his son, Adriaen Collaert.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pendant Design with Pax Standing Before an ArchPendant Design with Pax Standing Before an ArchPendant Design with Pax Standing Before an ArchPendant Design with Pax Standing Before an ArchPendant Design with Pax Standing Before an Arch

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.