Mary, Queen of Scots with the scene of her execution (from "La Gallerie des Femmes Fortes," page 350)

Mary, Queen of Scots with the scene of her execution (from "La Gallerie des Femmes Fortes," page 350)

Gilles Rousselet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Full length portrait with a scene of her execution in the background at left and a church facade in the background at right. From a series of twenty images designed by Vignon to illustrate "La Galerie des Femmes fortes," a poem by the Jesuit father Pierre le Moyne published in 1647. The poem, which celebrates ancient, modern, and Old Testament heroines, was dedicated to Anne of Austria, regent of France.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mary, Queen of Scots with the scene of her execution (from "La Gallerie des Femmes Fortes," page 350)Mary, Queen of Scots with the scene of her execution (from "La Gallerie des Femmes Fortes," page 350)Mary, Queen of Scots with the scene of her execution (from "La Gallerie des Femmes Fortes," page 350)Mary, Queen of Scots with the scene of her execution (from "La Gallerie des Femmes Fortes," page 350)Mary, Queen of Scots with the scene of her execution (from "La Gallerie des Femmes Fortes," page 350)

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.