The Stradanus Project

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum holds 143 sheets of drawings and inscriptions from the sketchbooks of the Netherlandish artist Johannes Stradanus, also known as Jan van der Straet (1523–1605). As one of the head artists at the Medici court in Florence, Stradanus worked as a painter and designer. He was also a prolific printmaker; his engravings, which cover a broad range of subjects—from religious narratives to animal hunts—circulated widely across Europe as well as Asia and the Americas.

Beginning in 2021, Cooper Hewitt embarked on a project to conserve, research, and digitize Stradanus’s drawings, which served as preparatory designs for his engravings. At some point in their history, the drawings were bound together to form several sketchbooks that were later disassembled. The leaves were separated and cut apart, and the sheets were laid down on secondary and tertiary supports—perhaps as part of an album that was then again cut apart before the sheets were acquired by Cooper Hewitt. As a result of conservation treatment and research, drawings and inscriptions that have been obscured for more than a century have been newly revealed.

The Stradanus Project is ongoing, and this website will be updated with newly published research and images as they are available. Please continue to check back for new information about the drawings and inscriptions, as well as updates on the symposium, Stradanus at Cooper Hewitt, which will take place on November 6–7, 2025, at Cooper Hewitt.

The Stradanus Project is made possible with support from Getty through The Paper Project initiative; and received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.