Saint Jerome (recto); Soldier with a Spear (verso)

Vittore Carpaccio

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Carpaccio was among the first to explore the possibilities of drawing on blue paper. This study of an old man was made for the figure of Saint Jerome in the altarpiece of the cathedral of Zadar (Croatia), painted about 1493. The artist built up the forms through straight lines that correspond to his stiff conception of the figure, but his choice of media suffuses the drawing with a sense of atmosphere and light. The drawing of a soldier with a spear on the back of the sheet is likely a preparatory study as well.

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