Design for the Decoration of the Altar to be erected during the Holy Week, Dedicated to Monseigneur Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris

Design for the Decoration of the Altar to be erected during the Holy Week, Dedicated to Monseigneur Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris

Louis Jean Desprez

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Large sheet with a frontal view of an altar surmounted by a large (temporary) baldachin, meant to decorate the altar during the Holy Week, specifically on Maundy Thursday and Holy Friday. The structure carries the fleurs-de-lis of France and is surmounted by a Patriarchal cross. Below the design, Desprez has included a dedication to Monseigneur Christophe de Beaumont, archbishop of Paris from 1746 until his death in 1781. The print is an example of the early work of Louis-Jean Desprez in France, and it is with this design in particular that he won the Great Prize of the Academie d’Architecture in 1770, a crucial moment in his career as this allowed him to travel to Italy. The print was originally part of a set of six which detailed the design further by way of sections and floorplans, but this sheet was the most important in its representation of the overall design and the dedication to Monseigneur Christophe de Beaumont.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for the Decoration of the Altar to be erected during the Holy Week, Dedicated to Monseigneur Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of ParisDesign for the Decoration of the Altar to be erected during the Holy Week, Dedicated to Monseigneur Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of ParisDesign for the Decoration of the Altar to be erected during the Holy Week, Dedicated to Monseigneur Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of ParisDesign for the Decoration of the Altar to be erected during the Holy Week, Dedicated to Monseigneur Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of ParisDesign for the Decoration of the Altar to be erected during the Holy Week, Dedicated to Monseigneur Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris

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.