View of a Bay with a Central Tree in an Ornamental Frame

View of a Bay with a Central Tree in an Ornamental Frame

Master IQV

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is from a group of around 20 etchings that depict ornamental frames, most of which enclose Netherlandish-style landscapes. The landscape in this print is based on a drawing by Matthijs Cock (Musée du Louvre, Paris) that shows St Augustine in the centre of the image. In this print he has here been replaced by a tree. The strapwork frame is the most striking element of the print, its fantastic grotesques, elongated and crouching figures and heads set in cartouche reveal the artist's imagination and compelling sense of design. The roots of this visual aesthetic lie in the Galerie François I at Fontainbleau decorated by Rosso Fiorentino.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

View of a Bay with a Central Tree in an Ornamental FrameView of a Bay with a Central Tree in an Ornamental FrameView of a Bay with a Central Tree in an Ornamental FrameView of a Bay with a Central Tree in an Ornamental FrameView of a Bay with a Central Tree in an Ornamental Frame

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.