Diverses Pieces de Serruriers, title page (recto)

Jean Berain

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Engravings by Jean I Berain, French, Saint-Mihiel 1640-1711 Paris and Gabriel Ladame, French, active 1645-68. Designs published by Francois Langlois after Hughes Brisville, French, born ca. 1633, active Paris 1663. Illustrated engraved title page that is in the shape of a rectangle. Title is printed in black ink at the center of the page. Encircling the title is a decorative oval frame, which is characterized by two twisting vines that transform into the upper bodies of human figures. At the top of the oval is a winged grotesque head and at the bottom is a lion's head to which the ends of the vines attach. At the very top of the design is a coat of arms flanked at the sides by two lions and at the top by a frieze of armor and foliage. Along the bottom edge of the design is an illustration of houses within a landscape.

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