The Garden of Venus who reclines in the centre before a term of Pan and surrounded by cupids

The Garden of Venus who reclines in the centre before a term of Pan and surrounded by cupids

Pietro Testa

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

It was especially for his skill as a draftsman and printmaker that the rather tragic figure of Pietro Testa became known. Before his early death at the age of thirty-eight, he spent most of his career in Rome, where he worked in the studios of Domenichino (1581-1641) and Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669) and associated with artists and scholars who, like him, were especially interested in the Classical tradition. In the Garden of Venus, Testa drew inspiration from the paintings of Nicolas Poussin and Titian's Worship of Venus (1518-19; Museo del Prado, Madrid), populated by an equally large throng of amorini and itself based on a description of an ancient painting in the Imagines by the Greek writer Philostratus the Elder (born ca. a.d. 190). Testa's etchings were admired as much for their skillful technique as their brilliant invention. In this impressive print, remarkable effects of space, texture, and shimmering light are achieved through rapid, energetic lines and the use of selective plate tone and multiple biting.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Garden of Venus who reclines in the centre before a term of Pan and surrounded by cupidsThe Garden of Venus who reclines in the centre before a term of Pan and surrounded by cupidsThe Garden of Venus who reclines in the centre before a term of Pan and surrounded by cupidsThe Garden of Venus who reclines in the centre before a term of Pan and surrounded by cupidsThe Garden of Venus who reclines in the centre before a term of Pan and surrounded by cupids

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.