Mary, Queen of Scots being urged by Sir Robert Melville to abdicate (from "Oeuvres de Walter Scott: Histoire d'Écosse," series one, volume 26, chapter 29)

Pierre-Léonard Dandeleux

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This scene, showing an armored man thrusting a sheet of paper at the seated queen, likely represents Sir Robert Melville urging Mary, then imprisoned at Lochleven Castle, to resign the crown of Scotland in favor of her infant son. During their meeting on July 24, 1567, Melville dramatically drew from his scabbard a letter from the English ambassador, which contained a message from Elizabeth supporting his case.

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