Portrait of Matthias Buchinger Surrounded by Thirteen Vignettes

Portrait of Matthias Buchinger Surrounded by Thirteen Vignettes

Elias Baeck

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

As Ricky Jay notes, “Buchinger exhibited an astonishing variety of skills. His talents were enumerated and illustrated perhaps as early as 1709, and certainly by 1710, in an undated souvenir print . . . this print was likely sold at his performances.” Here, the central portrait of Buchinger, shown in almost the same costume as the anonymous portrait displayed nearby, is surrounded by thirteen vignettes that show and tell (in German) his many skills. These skills, which range from the mundane to the remarkable, include shaving himself, making a quill pen, performing cups and balls, drawing, threading a needle, playing musical instruments, playing cards, and skittles, a form of bowling. Jay believes the bottom margin is “left deliberately capacious” to “accommodate personalizing the print for purchasers with his autograph and various calligraphic flourishes.”

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of Matthias Buchinger Surrounded by Thirteen VignettesPortrait of Matthias Buchinger Surrounded by Thirteen VignettesPortrait of Matthias Buchinger Surrounded by Thirteen VignettesPortrait of Matthias Buchinger Surrounded by Thirteen VignettesPortrait of Matthias Buchinger Surrounded by Thirteen Vignettes

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.