Album of designs for embroidery: bodices, gauntlets, caps, bags, page 60 (recto)

Anonymous, Dutch, 17th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Anonymous, Dutch, 17th century. From top to bottom, and left to right: Page consists of 3 designs, all of which are done in yellow wash. Top design is decorated with a central flower with leaves that coil into two other 5-petaled flowers at ends. Middle design appears unfinished and is decorated with curving vines of leaves and flowers. Bottom design is decorated with a central floral element with curving stems that each terminate with a 7-petaled flower.

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