Studies of Three Naked Men, a Right Arm and a Nude Figure Supported by Another (recto); Studies of a Figure with Left Arm Upraised, a Leg, and Putti with Foliage (verso)

Paolo Pagani

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Early authors on art celebrated Pagani’s studies of male nudes, as in this group of tightly intertwined bodies, seen in a strong light so as to reveal their defined musculature and great sculptural mass. Hailing from Lombardy, this eccentric seventeenth-century artist was trained in Venice and was later active in Austria and Moravia. His highly personal style as a draftsman is evident here in the elegantly exaggerated swelling of the outlines and use of transparent washes. At lower right the artist tested his penmanship with calligraphic exercises and also sketched a small composition in purple wash.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art