
Festivitates Aurifabris (...) / Verscheide Snakeryen dienstich voor Goutsmits, Beelthouwers, Steenhouwers, en alle die de const beminnen (Plate 4)
Johannes Lutma the Elder
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Jacob Lutma decided to use the print medium to preserve his father’s designs for silver in the Auricular Style. The resulting print series contains some of the most iconic Auricular Style prints and covers a great variety of objects and ornaments. This print cleverly combines two different motifs – the frame and the ewer – in one attractive image, making it, as the title announces, useful for artists in various disciplines and an attractive collector’s item for ‘all who love the arts’.
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.