Emperor Ninus
mid-16th–early 17th century
Medium
Black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash
Dimensions
sheet: 8 1/8 x 10 1/4 in. (20.6 x 26 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Anonymous Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.418.27
Tags
Art Historical Context
"Emperor Ninus," a captivating drawing by Flemish artist Maerten de Vos (1532–1603), dates to the mid-16th to early 17th century. Created with black chalk, pen and brown ink, and brown wash on a modest sheet measuring 8 1/8 x 10 1/4 inches, this work exemplifies the preparatory sketches that were vital in de Vos's Antwerp workshop. As a leading figure in Northern Mannerism, de Vos blended Italianate elegance with Flemish detail, producing thousands of drawings for paintings, tapestries, and prints. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, it entered the collec...