Copies after the 'Livre contenant passement de moresques' (plate 1)

Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Modern album containing 19 etchings with moresque designs after an original series by the French artist Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau. The series was first published by Du Cerceau around 1545, and is also known to have been published by Martinus Petrus in Antwerp in 1563, who added a title page to his edition. Despite the apparent popularity of the series, it is now very rare. Only one complete set is known to exist, and was sold at the sale of Hippolyte Destailleur in 1895.The present whereabouts of this set are unknown. The prints in the present album may have been created as a facsimile series during the nineteenth century to accommodate collectors who desired to assemble a comprehensive collection of prints by Du Cerceau. The copies differ from the originals in certain details, especially in the hatchings, which have been applied in reverse and appear slightly mechanical. All prints have been mounted onto the pages of the album, but a window has been cut into the paper to leave the versos exposed.

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