Frontispiece from Thomas Sprat's "The History of the Royal Society of London"

Frontispiece from Thomas Sprat's "The History of the Royal Society of London"

Wenceslaus Hollar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bust portrait of Charles II on a low column being crowned by an angel with figures at left and right within an open vaulted interior. Fame crowns the bust with a wreath, Bacon is seated at right holding his chancellor's bag, William Brouncker points to the inscription on the pedestal; there are books and scientific instruments on the walls in the background, with arms of the society above; landscape and country house seen through arch in the background, with man looking through telescope suspended from a tall pole; frontispiece to Thomas Sprat, "The History of the Royal Society of London."

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Frontispiece from Thomas Sprat's "The History of the Royal Society of London"Frontispiece from Thomas Sprat's "The History of the Royal Society of London"Frontispiece from Thomas Sprat's "The History of the Royal Society of London"Frontispiece from Thomas Sprat's "The History of the Royal Society of London"Frontispiece from Thomas Sprat's "The History of the Royal Society of London"

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.