The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Works of Art: Note to the Reader

This Note to the Reader explains selected terms and practices mentioned elsewhere on this website.

The Permanent Collection, Special Exhibitions, and Collection Database

Permanent Collection

The term "permanent collection" refers to the holdings of a museum. These objects are owned and cared for by the museum. Throughout the life of a museum, objects are acquired, or accessioned, to expand and enrich the collection. On occasion, works are deaccessioned.

At the Metropolitan Museum, founded in 1870, the permanent collection consists of more than two million works of art from around the world, dating from ancient through modern times. The collection is cared for, studied, and exhibited by specialized curatorial departments.

Works of art in the permanent collection are displayed in the galleries, which may bear the names of donors who have provided funding for their installation or renovation. Objects that are not on view may be in storage or conservation, or on loan to other institutions. Information on many objects in the permanent collection is available in the Collection Database.

Special Exhibitions

Works of art are also presented in temporary special exhibitions. These exhibitions, conceived and organized by curators, concentrate on particular artists, mediums, or countries or geographic regions. Special exhibitions may comprise objects from the permanent collection or objects on loan from other institutions as well as from the permanent collection. Special exhibitions are on view for varying lengths of time, usually two to three months or more. Often organized in conjunction with other institutions, exhibitions may travel to multiple venues, bringing the material to a larger audience.

Collection Database

The Collection Database is a searchable database of artworks and related materials from the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. An individual database record includes information about an object as well as images, when available. Visitors may search the database by artist, title, subject, or other keywords. (For search tips, visit our Advanced Search page.) The Museum's curators have selected several works of note within the Collection Database as Highlights of the collection.

Due to the extremely large number of objects in the Museum's permanent collection, not all artworks are currently available in the Collection Database. Furthermore, information contained in the database records is, in some cases, incomplete, and all information is subject to change according to ongoing research.

Museum Curatorial Departments

Curatorial departments care for and study the objects in their collections and make them accessible to qualified researchers. They are also responsible for organizing and mounting special exhibitions in their areas of concentration, often working in conjunction with other departments and with other institutions. See Curatorial Departments within the Works of Art section for a list of curatorial departments, as well as introductory texts that explain each department's scope.

Departments expand their holdings by accessioning works of art through bequests, gifts, and purchases. Each year the Museum's new accessions are listed in the Annual Report, and certain works are featured in an issue of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin devoted to recent acquisitions. See Recent Acquisitions.

How to Read a Caption

Introduction

A caption gives basic information about a work of art. On the website captions include several components.

Title or Object Name

Titles appear in boldface or in italics, following each department's preference. Titles are listed before or after the name of the creator of the work of art, again following each department's preference.

The formal title of a work is that given by the artist, if known. For example:

Compass, 1920
Man Ray (American, 1890–1976)

If the title is undetermined, curators may give a title indicating the work's subject. Uncertainty may be indicated by including a question mark in parentheses or by using words such as "possibly" or "probably." For example:

An Allegory, Probably of the Peace of Utrecht of 1713
Antoine Rivalz (French, 1667–1735)

Titles are often simply the common name or a simple description of the object. For example:

Easy Chair, 1758
Made by Caleb Gardner (d. 1761)

Vessel with Mythological Scene, 8th century
Maya peoples; Guatemala, Petén Department

The word "detail" indicates that the image shows only a part of the work. For example:

At the Seaside (detail), ca. 1892
William Merritt Chase (1849–1916)

Languages

Titles in foreign languages that use the Latin alphabet may be followed by the accepted English translation in parentheses. For example:

Le bal masqué (The Masked Ball)

Several departments work with objects that have titles in languages that do not use the Latin alphabet. According to the Museum's editorial style and each department's preference, these words are translated into English or transliterated into roman letters. For example:

Night-Shining White, Tang dynasty (618–907), 8th century
Attributed to Han Gan (Chinese, act. 742–756)

Chuba, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), 17th century
China

Date

Titles or object names are usually followed by a date or date range. If the exact date is unknown, approximate dates may be indicated by "ca." (circa, or about). A question mark may also be used.

In cases where an exact or approximate date cannot be determined, a date range may be given. A range may cover a number of years or a historical period: 1850–53 or Tang dynasty (618–907).

All dates are converted into the Western calendar. Era designations are indicated by B.C. (before Christ); B.C.E. (before the common era); A.D. (anno Domini, "in the year of the Lord"), or C.E. (of the common era), depending on the preference of the department. The abbreviations B.C., B.C.E., and C.E. follow the date; A.D. precedes the date.

Artist or Maker

The name and nationality of the maker(s) of the object are given, if known. If there is uncertainty about the maker, a question mark in parentheses follows the name. If there are two or more possible creators, their names are separated by "or." If the maker's name is undetermined, the word "unknown" may be used. Some other descriptive phrases are: "attributed to," "follower of," "school of," "circle of," and "workshop of."

The following abbreviations may be used for dates:

act. (active)
b. (born)
ca. (circa)
d. (died)
r. (ruled)

For example:

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)

French school, 19th century

Unknown artist, formerly attributed to John La Farge (1835–1910)

Attributed to Petrus Christus (Netherlandish, act. by 1444, d. 1475/76)

Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden (Netherlandish, 1399/1400–1464) (possibly Hans Memling, act. by 1465, d. 1494)

Country or Culture of Origin

The country or culture of origin indicates the geographic area where the object was made or found and may be followed by a specific city or region. For example:

France (Paris), 19th century

Olmec peoples, Mexico, Puebla State

Medium and Dimensions

The medium describes the material(s) that the work is made of. These materials are determined from curatorial study, conservation work, or information recorded by the artist. Dimensions of the work of art are given in inches and centimeters. The order follows each department's preference.

Measurements for two-dimensional works (such as paintings, drawings, and photographs) are given as height, followed by width. Measurements for three-dimensional works (such as sculptures) are given as height, followed by width and depth. The duration of video works may be given in minutes.

Works of art with multiple elements list dimensions for each element. For example: L. at center back of bodice 21 1/4 in. (54 cm); L. at center back of skirt 31 in. (78.7 cm).

The following abbreviations may be used:

D. (Depth)
Diam. (Diameter)
fol. (folio)
H. (Height)
L. (Length)
r. (recto)
v. (verso)
W. (Width)

Name of Institution

Objects in the Metropolitan's permanent collection are indicated by "The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York." Works of art on loan are indicated by the name and location of the lending institution. For example: Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Credit Line and Accession Number

The work's credit line indicates how the work came into the permanent collection or how it came to be on view at the Metropolitan Museum. "Bequest," "gift," "purchase," and "loan" are some of the terms used to indicate sources. The assigned credit line remains with the work of art throughout its life at the Metropolitan. The year is given at the end of the credit line.

Each accessioned work is assigned a unique accession number by which it is catalogued and identified. At the Metropolitan Museum, the number is composed of the year the work was acquired, followed by a further number or numbers, and sometimes letters. Some object groups are composed of multiple accession numbers.

For example:

The Harvesters, 1565
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Netherlandish, act. by 1551, d. 1569)
Rogers Fund, 1919 (19.164)

Armor for Field and Tournament, 1527
Purchase, William H. Riggs Gift and Rogers Fund, 1919 (19.131.1, 2)

Casket with Scenes from Romances, 14th century
Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.190.173a, b)

Every institution has its own way of assigning accession numbers.

Copyright

Some works of art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries may have a copyright line beginning with the copyright symbol [©].

For example:

Penny Picture Display, Savannah, 1936
Walker Evans (American, 1903–1975)
© Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Self-portrait, 1979
Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987)
© 2002 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/ARS, New York

Additional Object Information

On the website further information often follows the caption. This may include a description of the object, a description of the markings on the object, and the provenance, or ownership history, of the object.

Object Description

Descriptions of works of art are written by the curatorial staff. Some texts may indicate the importance of the particular work in relation to others in the Museum's collection.

Signature, Marks, Inscriptions

The signature of the creator and any marks, such as inscriptions, dates, and the like, are given. These are essential in identifying and documenting works.

Provenance/Ownership History

"Provenance" is the history of ownership of the work before it came to the Metropolitan Museum. The information may be provided by previous owners, by inscriptions, by labels on the work, or by information from archives and other such sources. It may include names of owners (Andries de Schutter [by 1645]) or locations (Church of Saint Lucy).

Read information about the Museum's ongoing Provenance Research Project.

More Information

The Museum's Lita Annenberg Hazen and Joseph H. Hazen Center for Electronic Information Resources provides links to a number of online art-related sources, including dictionaries and encyclopedias for general and specialized research.