Spechio di pensieri delle belle et Virtudiose donne, title page (recto)

Matteo Pagano

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published by Matteo Pagano, Italian, 1515-1588, Venice. From top top bottom, and left to right: Title page with printer's mark surrounded by decorative borders on all sides. Title printed in black. Top border is separated into 2 sections, which flank the printer's mark in the center. It is decorated with overlapping lines ornamented with a circular pattern, which form a pentagon followed by a diamond. Left border is decorated with an interlace pattern containing a snowflake followed by an 'X'. Right border is decorated with a circular interlace pattern. Bottom border is characterized by central diamond containing a seated female nude holding a cross in one hand and a chalice in the other.

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