A sacrifice to the Olympian gods taking place at the end of a path lined with statues and foliage; set design from 'Il Fuoco Eterno'

A sacrifice to the Olympian gods taking place at the end of a path lined with statues and foliage; set design from 'Il Fuoco Eterno'

Mathäus Küsel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of twelve plates depicting the stage sets designed by Lodovico Burnacini for 'Il Fuoco Eterno Custodito Dalle Vestali', an opera celebrating the birth of Maria Anna Antonia, Archduchess of Austria in 1672. The Archduchess was the daughter of Emperor Leopold I and his second wife Claudia Felicitas, heiress of Tirol. Composed by Antonio Draghi with a libretto by Nicoló Minato, the opera was performed in the Hoftheater in Vienna on October 30, 1674.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A sacrifice to the Olympian gods taking place at the end of a path lined with statues and foliage; set design from 'Il Fuoco Eterno'A sacrifice to the Olympian gods taking place at the end of a path lined with statues and foliage; set design from 'Il Fuoco Eterno'A sacrifice to the Olympian gods taking place at the end of a path lined with statues and foliage; set design from 'Il Fuoco Eterno'A sacrifice to the Olympian gods taking place at the end of a path lined with statues and foliage; set design from 'Il Fuoco Eterno'A sacrifice to the Olympian gods taking place at the end of a path lined with statues and foliage; set design from 'Il Fuoco Eterno'

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.