Vertical Panel with a Man and Woman

Vertical Panel with a Man and Woman

Hans Janssen

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This design for a vertical panel. filled with meandering branches and vegetal scrollwork reminds of late fifteenth century prints by Martin Schongauer and Israel von Meckenem. Interspersed between the scrollwork are various birds and other animals. The bottom half of the design shows a man and a woman taking a stroll, accompanied by a dog. The size of the print and its technique indicate that it is meant as a decoration for a small rectangular metal surface, like the lid of a box for example. The fact that Hans Jansen is mainly known through designs for decoration of gold- and silversmithswork, underwrites this impression.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.