Sheet with horizontal and diagonal stripe pattern
19th century
Medium
Relief print (wood or metal)
Dimensions
Sheet: 3 1/8 × 5 1/4 in. (8 × 13.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1939
Accession Number
39.13.47
Art Historical Context
This delicate 19th-century relief, titled *Sheet with Horizontal and Diagonal Stripe Pattern*, showcases the elegance of simple geometric design through intersecting stripes. Created anonymously using a wood or metal block, the medium involves carving away negative space to leave raised lines that hold ink, which is then pressed onto paper. At just 3 1/8 × 5 1/4 inches, its intimate scale suggests it may have served as a pattern sample for textiles, wallpaper, or bookbinding, common applications in an era of burgeoning industrial design. Relief printing thrived in the 19th century amid the te...
About the Artist
Anonymous
In the vast tapestry of art history, "Anonymous" stands not as a singular individual but as a collective designation for countless unidentified creators whose works have endured across millennia. These artists, spanning prehistoric cave painters to medieval illuminators and folk craftsmen, produced the foundational layers of human visual culture. Prior to the Renaissance, when individual fame emer...