Allegorical thesis print with various figures, set in an architectural structure

Philippe Thomassin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A classicizing architectural monument acts as a stage for eight allegorical characters placed to either side of the church doctor and theologian Thomas Aquinas, who appears in the niche at center. The coat of arms indicates that this print was used at a thesis defense dedicated to the Roman cardinal Giambattista Leni (1573–1627). Allegorical figures were well suited to thesis prints, as they presented students the challenge of identifying them via their attributes. The figures likely represent four virtues and four vices, but only Peace (far right), who stands on a flaming heart, is unequivocally identifiable. Indeed, the print’s iconographic ambiguities allowed it to be used with texts for at least two different thesis defenses.

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