The world upside down ('El Mundo al Reves')

The world upside down ('El Mundo al Reves')

Juan Llorens

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

19th-century Spanish broadsheet with 48 small rectangular scenes showing examples of a so-called 'topsy-turvy' world. All scenes are numbered and are accomanied by a few words describing the theme of the scene.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The world upside down ('El Mundo al Reves')The world upside down ('El Mundo al Reves')The world upside down ('El Mundo al Reves')The world upside down ('El Mundo al Reves')The world upside down ('El Mundo al Reves')

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.