Group of Six Reclining Nude Women (Nymphs Bathing) (recto); Sketch of a Leg (verso)

Taddeo Zuccaro

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This graceful composition exhibits Taddeo's characteristically fluid line, which renders the forms at once animated, convincingly three-dimensional, and elegantly ornamental. The sheet is a preliminary study for a group of six bathing nymphs that appear on a second, more finished drawing in the Museum’s collection (acc. no. 56.219.3) featuring a circular design with Diana, goddess of hunt, and her nymphs. It has been suggested that the design was part of a projected series of majolica illustrating the activities of Diana and would have preceded Taddeo's well-known commission to design a set of majolica for the king of Spain in 1562. Taddeo's final design for this composition is recorded in a drawing at the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. 9030).

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