A Sibyl Reading a book facing right

A Sibyl Reading a book facing right

Ugo da Carpi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This print is from a scrapbook (album) containing woodcuts and chiaroscuro prints. It was presumably taken apart when it was acquired by The Met in 1922. On the front page of the volume there appeared a statement that this collection was made by the poet Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) and then bought by Angela Coutts (1816-1906) in memory of him at the sale of the collection at his house (28 April – 20 May, 1856). #1615a Rogers Sale. #146 Burdett Coutts Sale (Sotheby’s, May 1922).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Sibyl Reading a book facing rightA Sibyl Reading a book facing rightA Sibyl Reading a book facing rightA Sibyl Reading a book facing rightA Sibyl Reading a book facing right

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.