
Venus Honored by the Nymphs
Jan Muller
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Around 1590, Jan Muller, one of the most sought-after Mannerist printmakers, began making engravings after designs by Bartholomeus Spranger, the court painter to the Emperor Rudolf II of Prague. Rudolf, who reigned from 1576 to 1612, surrounded himself with artists, writers, scientists and mathematicians, who prized novelty and invention above all else. Venus, the Roman goddess of love, is seated outdoors on a throne beside a huge column, its swag of drapery adds grandeur to the scene and focuses the viewers' eyes on her. Around Veunus are nymphs and satyrs, carrying baskets of fruit and flowers and even a dove. Three genii (little cupids) attend her adoringly and one hovers above, raining still more flowers on her. The classical architecture and deliberate gestures add a sense of formality to the celebratory scene. However, the inscription below warns against such abundance and luxury, telling the chaste viewer to flee them as they would a rabid dog.
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.