Ten Commandments, London, December 3, 1730

Ten Commandments, London, December 3, 1730

Matthias Buchinger

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The largest and most ornate of Buchinger’s Ten Commandments framed by architectural elements, this sheet is part of a group of extraordinary drawings the artist executed in Scotland and England in about 1730. Buchinger was by then already known as “The Greatest German Living.” This outsized demonstration piece cannot be tied to a patron and may have served, as Ricky Jay speculates, as an exemplar of Buchinger’s artistry to be kept in his stall when he was performing in public spaces. The magnificent calligraphic micrography, visible in the roundels between the tablet of Moses, the decorated initials, and the architectural ornament, exemplifies his artistic practice.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ten Commandments, London, December 3, 1730Ten Commandments, London, December 3, 1730Ten Commandments, London, December 3, 1730Ten Commandments, London, December 3, 1730Ten Commandments, London, December 3, 1730

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.