Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, Three Women, and an Angel

Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, Three Women, and an Angel

Adriaan de Weerdt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

According to Karel van Mander’s "Schilder-boeck" of 1604, the Brussels artist Adriaan de Weerdt "set his heart exclusively on the manner of Parmigianino, whom he tried to imitate with all his might." In drawing such as this sheet, which must be dated during or after De Weerdt’s stay in Italy, the artist followed the model of the great artist from Parma in subject, style and technique. Only a small number of other drawings and oil sketches on paper by De Weerdt survive. In addition, his style, characterized by a flowing line and extremely elongated, graceful figures, is recorded in several engravings, published in Cologne, where the artist lived from 1566 and where he also died.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, Three Women, and an AngelMadonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, Three Women, and an AngelMadonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, Three Women, and an AngelMadonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, Three Women, and an AngelMadonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, Three Women, and an Angel

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.