Quatriregio (Four Realms)
Federico Frezzi
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Like the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, which this novel resembles in its length and the extent of its illustrations, the Quatriregio contains references to the world of pagan mythology. In the first of four realms traversed by the narrator, the realm of Cupid or love, we encounter Diana, Venus, Juno, Vulcan at his forge, and Neptune leading a marine procession. In the pages seen here, the narrator observes as the sylvan deities—satyrs, centaurs, and dryads—join the nymphs of Diana to celebrate the festival of the goddess. The illustration on the right shows the nymphs paying homage to their queen, the goddess of the hunt. As is characteristic of Florentine art, the flowing hair and drapery of the nymphs recall depictions of bacchantes in ancient Greek and Roman relief sculpture. The satyr carrying another on his back also draws on an ancient model, a Roman sarcophagus that was well known to artists, inspiring, for example, the piggyback figures in Mantegna's Bacchanals (29.44.15; 1986.1159). In spite of these classical elements, this poem, composed around 1400 by a Dominican monk, has a clear didactic aim. As the pilgrim travels into other realms, he will enter an almost purely Christian universe.
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.