Man seated viewed from behind (Narcissus)

Antonio da Trento

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Upon returning to Bologna after the Sack of Rome in 1527, Parmigianino started working with the printmaker Antonio da Trento, who, according to the sixteenth-century artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari, also lived with the artist. Their collaboration led to highly skilled compositions, including 'Narcissus' from Ovid’s 'Metamorphoses'. Two blocks inked with different hues of brown provide the middle tones, the outlines from the keyblock are printed in black, and the exposed white of the paper creates the highlights. Though the relationship between Parmigianino and Antonio da Trento was initially productive, it soon ended when, in Vasari’s telling, the printmaker left the artist’s home one morning having stolen numerous prints and drawings.

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