Designs for Four Rings, Plate 29 from 'Livre d'Aneaux d'Orfevrerie'

Designs for Four Rings, Plate 29 from 'Livre d'Aneaux d'Orfevrerie'

Pierre Woeiriot de Bouzey II

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Small oval print with designs for four rings, each with a square-cut gemstone in a central setting. Two rings are presented as seen from the front and two are presented in side view. The plate, numbered 29, is part of a book of forty designs for rings by the goldsmith and engraver Woeiriot, published in Lyon (France) after Woeiriot returned from a visit to Rome. The French edition, titled 'Livre d'aneaux d'orfévrerie de l'invention de Pierre Woeiriot Lorrain', appeared in 1561. An Italian edition, the 'Libro d'anella d'orefici del inventione de Piero Woeirioto di Loreno', appeared in the same year.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Designs for Four Rings, Plate 29 from 'Livre d'Aneaux d'Orfevrerie'Designs for Four Rings, Plate 29 from 'Livre d'Aneaux d'Orfevrerie'Designs for Four Rings, Plate 29 from 'Livre d'Aneaux d'Orfevrerie'Designs for Four Rings, Plate 29 from 'Livre d'Aneaux d'Orfevrerie'Designs for Four Rings, Plate 29 from 'Livre d'Aneaux d'Orfevrerie'

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.