The Virgin and Child on a Crescent Moon

The Virgin and Child on a Crescent Moon

Heinrich Aldegrever

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The crowned figure of the Virgin holds the Child to her left side. The figure, standing at center on the crescent moon above a landscape with a town at bottom right, is slightly turned to the right.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Virgin and Child on a Crescent MoonThe Virgin and Child on a Crescent MoonThe Virgin and Child on a Crescent MoonThe Virgin and Child on a Crescent MoonThe Virgin and Child on a Crescent Moon

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.