A peasant going to the market

A peasant going to the market

Anonymous, Italian, 15th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The first of two engravings pasted to vellum end papers to the inside (now separated) covers of a XV century Latin book of medicine, the Antidotarium Nicolai (editions, 1471, 1478/9 etc). Two folios of text from the book (printed recto and verso) now mounted separately accompany the prints. The wooden boards are covered with worn, stamped brown leather, metal boss and clasps. Hind notes that these prints are Ferrarese or Paduan. Both sheets have 'cries and invectives' written apparently in a Venetian dialect.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A peasant going to the marketA peasant going to the marketA peasant going to the marketA peasant going to the marketA peasant going to the market

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.