Float with Apollo and the Python, from the fireworks display celebrating Louis XIII's return from a military campaign, Paris, February 1623

Float with Apollo and the Python, from the fireworks display celebrating Louis XIII's return from a military campaign, Paris, February 1623

Michel Lasne

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fireworks display was orchestrated by Felix Clarner, engineer to the King. The celebration took place in front of the Louvre in February 1623.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Float with Apollo and the Python, from the fireworks display celebrating Louis XIII's return from a military campaign, Paris, February 1623Float with Apollo and the Python, from the fireworks display celebrating Louis XIII's return from a military campaign, Paris, February 1623Float with Apollo and the Python, from the fireworks display celebrating Louis XIII's return from a military campaign, Paris, February 1623Float with Apollo and the Python, from the fireworks display celebrating Louis XIII's return from a military campaign, Paris, February 1623Float with Apollo and the Python, from the fireworks display celebrating Louis XIII's return from a military campaign, Paris, February 1623

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.