Twenty album pages with prints from the series ‘Coenotaphiorum’
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 12 3/8 × 13 7/8 in. (31.5 × 35.3 cm) [each]
Classification
Ornament & Architecture|Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Frits and Rita Markus Fund, 2014
Accession Number
2014.658.17(1–20)
Tags
Art Historical Context
This series of twenty etchings, created in 1563 by Hans Vredeman de Vries in collaboration with the skilled printmakers Johannes and Lucas van Doetecum, offers a fascinating glimpse into Renaissance funerary design. Known as *Coenotaphiorum*, the prints present elaborate architectural monuments—cenotaphs—intended to honor the deceased without containing actual remains. Each sheet showcases intricate details of tombs adorned with heraldic insignia, sculptural elements, and classical motifs, reflecting the period’s fascination with memory, status, and symbolic display. Vredeman de Vries, a lead...