Title Page, from Grotisch fur alle Kunstler
1580–1600
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 2 5/8 x 5 3/4 in. (6.6 x 14.6 cm)
Classification
Prints|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951
Accession Number
51.501.5793(1)
Tags
Art Historical Context
This elegant engraving by Theodor de Bry served as the title page for *Grotisch fur alle Kunstler*, a late sixteenth-century pattern book of ornamental designs. Created between 1580 and 1600, the small print—measuring just over five inches wide—showcases the intricate possibilities of the engraving technique, with fine lines rendering lively figures, birds, and decorative cartouches. De Bry, a Flemish artist renowned for his detailed print work, crafted these motifs to inspire fellow craftsmen and artists across Europe. The composition reflects the enduring Renaissance fascination with grotes...
About the Artist
Theodor de Bry · 1528–1598
Theodor de Bry was born in 1528 in Liège, in what is now Belgium, into a family of jewelers and engravers. Trained as a goldsmith and copper-plate engraver — skills he refined under his grandfather, Thiry de Bry the Elder — he worked across several European cities before religious persecution forced him into exile. As a Protestant living under Spanish rule in the Southern Netherlands, de Bry was s...