The drunken Silenus with putti

Anonymous, Italian, 16th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The print depicts the inebriated Silenus resting on the ground in the company of four putti who are also drinking wine, one seems to have collapsed. In the lower right hand corner is a false monogram of Albrecht Dürer in pen and ink. This was probably added in an attempt to assign the print to the German master. The technique of the print is not dissimilar to that of Marcantonio Raimondi and his circle working in Rome in the early years of the sixteenth century. It cannot however be entirely ruled out that this is the work of a German printmaker influenced by Italian subjects or maybe an engraver working in the north of Italy where northern engravings were so popular. Another impression of the print (2012.136.706) has the name 'Liefrinck' engraved in the lower right hand corner. This refers to Hans Liefrinck I and was probably added when he came into posession of the plate.

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