Concerto Spirituale

Henry William Bunbury

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This early 19th century print reissues an image first published in 1773, a decade when concerts of religious music were performed regularly at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. The viol da gamba player likely represents Carl Friedrich Abel, or possibly Johann Christian Bach. The oboe player has been identified as Johann Christian Fisher, and the French horn player as Giovanni Punto (born Jan Stich). These men came to London from the Continent hoping to take advantage of the patronage of George III–the British king was also prince-elector of Hanover, married Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and enjoyed German music.

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