Circumcision

Aegidius Sadeler II

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This engraving is one of 13 plates from the series, Salus generis humani (Salvation of Mankind), engraved by the Netherlandish printmaker Aegidius Sadeler. Made in 1590, the engravings feature scenes from the Life of Christ after designs by Hans von Aachen. The central compositions are surrounded by emblematic borders, whose designs originate from illuminations in the missal (Missale romanum) made by Joris Hoefnagel in 1581–90 for Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, now in the Austrian National Library in Vienna.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art