Circumcision

Circumcision

Aegidius Sadeler II

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This engraving belongs to a series, Salus generis humani (Salvation of Mankind), depicting thirteen scenes from the life of Christ (see 51.501.6467(1-13)). Aegidius Sadeler II based his engraving of the scene at the center on a drawing by Hans von Aachen. The allegorical border is based on designs by Joris Hoefnagel. This impression has been hand-colored by an unknown artist with opaque watercolor, gold, and now-tarnished silver. The carefully applied watercolor reinforces the underlying engraved desgin (see 51.501.6467(4)), adding depth and emphasizing lighting and contour. At least two other prints with similar coloring from the same series survive, one in The Met's collection (see 17.3.3286).[1] These other surviving sheets suggest that the series may have been colored and preserved as a set. - Olivia Dill, May 23, 2023 [1] See Susan Dackerman, "Painted Prints in Germany and the Netherlands," in Painted Prints: The Revelation of Color in Northern Renaissance and Baroque Engravings, Etchings and Woodcuts (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press and Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, 2002), pp. 33-35, which briefly discusses the hand-coloring of this series and reproduces one of the other hand-colored sheets.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.