Museum Exhibition
Allegory and Abstraction: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
September 4, 2025 – December 9, 2025
The exhibition highlights how artists like Matisse, Bourgeois, and others used allegory and abstraction to convey emotion, narrative, and layered meaning.
Exhibition artworks
Representative work
Adam Gutmann
An Allegory of Wealth
1598
Pen and black ink, gray, brownish-green and pink washes
sheet: 8 x 6 in. (20.3 x 15.2 cm)
View artwork at the museumFeatured works
Hans Jakob Ebelmann
An Allegory of Fortune with Two River Gods
1624
Pen and black ink and gray and blue wash over black chalk
sheet: 4 1/16 x 11 7/16 in. (10.3 x 29 cm)
View at museumPeter Schmidt von Lichtenberg
Allegory of Art
1609
Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, heightened with white on yellow prepared paper
sheet: 7 1/2 x 5 11/16 in. (19 x 14.5 cm)
View at museumPieter Balten
The Dance of the World
mid-16th century
Engraving; second state
plate: 12 3/4 x 16 in. (32.4 x 40.7 cm) sheet: 16 1/4 x 20 1/16 in. (41.2 x 51 cm)
View at museumDaniel Hopfer|Anonymous, Italian, 15th to 16th century
Morris Dancers
late 15th–early 16th century
Etching; fourth state of four
sheet: 8 3/8 x 13 1/8 in. (21.2 x 33.3 cm)
View at museumThomas Girtin
Lindisfarne Castle, Holy Island, Northumberland
1796–97
Watercolor
Sheet: 15 in. × 20 1/2 in. (38.1 × 52 cm)
View at museumChristian Richter
Allegory of the Transience of Life
1618
Pen and ink, brush and brown, blue and pink wash, heightened with white gouache
sheet: 5 x 5 15/16 in. (12.7 x 15.1 cm)
View at museum17 documented works in this exhibition
View all 17 documented works