Blackwork Designs with Flowers, Plate 6 from a Series of Blackwork Ornaments combined with Figures, Birds, Animals and Flowers

Blackwork Designs with Flowers, Plate 6 from a Series of Blackwork Ornaments combined with Figures, Birds, Animals and Flowers

Meinert Gelijs

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 6 from a print series consisting of a title page (missing) and seven numbered plates displaying motifs for the application in goldsmith's work, executed in blackwork, combined with figures and other motifs borrowed from other print series, executed in engraving. This plate contains five distinct motifs in blackwork, with a large design in the center of the plate and two smaller designs on either side. The central motif represents the decoration of a knife hilt, the four smaller motifs are decorations for a lock plate with a keyhole at center. Surrounding the blackwork motifs are engraved figures of flowers and leafs taken from a botanical source. Due to the similarity in their production techniques, blackwork prints often relate to precious objects decorated with champlevé enamel work. However, on the title page of his second series, characterized by the almost square copperplates and exclusive use of the blackwork technique, Gelijs indicates that his patterns may be used in other disciplines as well. This series is one of two print series known by Gelijs. The style of his ornaments is quite unique, blending elements from the late sixteenth-century schweifwerk ornament, with stylized peapods, floral elements and some forms related to the auricular style. Prints from both series are bound in a single (modern) binding in the Met's collection.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Blackwork Designs with Flowers, Plate 6 from a Series of Blackwork Ornaments combined with Figures, Birds, Animals and FlowersBlackwork Designs with Flowers, Plate 6 from a Series of Blackwork Ornaments combined with Figures, Birds, Animals and FlowersBlackwork Designs with Flowers, Plate 6 from a Series of Blackwork Ornaments combined with Figures, Birds, Animals and FlowersBlackwork Designs with Flowers, Plate 6 from a Series of Blackwork Ornaments combined with Figures, Birds, Animals and FlowersBlackwork Designs with Flowers, Plate 6 from a Series of Blackwork Ornaments combined with Figures, Birds, Animals and Flowers

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.