Spechio di pensieri delle belle et Virtudiose donne, page 5 (recto)

Matteo Pagano

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published by Matteo Pagano, Italian, 1515-1588, Venice. From top bottom, and left to right: Design composed of 5 horizontal registers. First register is decorated with a wavy line with flowers placed at each point. Second register is decorated with a line of diamonds containing a '+' made of 5 smaller diamonds. Third register is decorated with 2 intertwining lines. Fourth register is decorated with an interlace pattern. Fifth register is decorated with an alternating pattern of an interlace motif and diamond.

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