Near Santa Maria de' Monti, Naples

Thomas Jones

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the most original eighteenth-century British landscapists, Jones lived in Italy from 1776 to 1783. While in Naples, he explored vistas along a remote road leading eastward toward the monastery of Santa Maria dei Monti and described the path in his diary as a "hollow Way [presenting] . . . the most beautiful Series of picturesque Objects . . . the Scenery that Salvator Rosa formed himself upon." This drawing, dated May 10, is one of about a dozen surviving studies made during repeated visits to the site between March and June 1781. Jones used chiaroscuro ink washes to describe the shaded rocky walls, overgrown with shrubbery, and to convey his moody response to the scene. Such studies were foundational to the artist’s developed compositions.

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