Two Pendant Designs with Sun-Dials on Top

Jan Collaert I

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vertical panel with two pendant designs with strapwork and grotesques. Both ornaments are suspended from small jewelled motifs tied with ribbon above and are topped by circular sun-dials. The design at left shows two outward-facing grotesques with female heads on serpentine necks. The design at right has griffins flanking the sun-dial and a clock at bottom center. Plate 10 from a set of ten plates with pendant designs, with deities and strapwork backgrounds. The first edition of the series was published in Antwerp by Philips Galle in 1581 and exists in two states; two later editions – the first published by Theodoor Galle after 1600 and the second by Johannes Galle after 1636 – were also produced in Antwerp. Jan Collaert I produced several series of plates with pendant designs, a practice continued by his son, Adriaen Collaert.

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