L'Asinaria (Allegory of Stupidity)

Michele Lucchese

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The title of this print, L’Asinaria), refers to the comic play by the Roman author Titus Maccius Plautus (c.254–184 B C ). The ruins in the background have been identified as the Forum of Nerva in Rome and the subject interpreted as showing how lack of respect for the arts and sciences constitutes a menace to civilisation. A first state of this print is in the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, Rome. This print is the second state with additional lettering and the plaque in the upper left of the first state divided in two. See Mark McDonald, The Print Collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo (Ceremonies, Costumes, Portraits and Genre), London 2017, Vol. 1, cat.no.413.

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