The fate of an evil tongue; seven putti stand around an anvil on which they hammer a tongue, landscape and architecture behind

The fate of an evil tongue; seven putti stand around an anvil on which they hammer a tongue, landscape and architecture behind

Nicoletto da Modena

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although printmakers traditionally used black ink, beginning in the mid-fifteenth century artists started experimenting with colored inks, particularly blue, green, brown, and red. The Italian printmaker Nicoletto da Modena printed a small number of his compositions using various shades of blue ink earlier in the century, making this impression quite rare.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fate of an evil tongue; seven putti stand around an anvil on which they hammer a tongue, landscape and architecture behindThe fate of an evil tongue; seven putti stand around an anvil on which they hammer a tongue, landscape and architecture behindThe fate of an evil tongue; seven putti stand around an anvil on which they hammer a tongue, landscape and architecture behindThe fate of an evil tongue; seven putti stand around an anvil on which they hammer a tongue, landscape and architecture behindThe fate of an evil tongue; seven putti stand around an anvil on which they hammer a tongue, landscape and architecture behind

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.