Giardineto novo di punti tagliati et gropposi per exercitio & ornamento delle donne (Venice 1554), page 23 (recto)

Matteo Pagano

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published by Matteo Pagano, Italian, 1515-1588, bound by Lloyd, Wallis & Lloyd, British, active London after 1821. From top to bottom, and left to right: Design composed of 5 vertical columns. First column is decorated with diagonal lines ornamented with a circular pattern. Second column is decorated with half of an 'X' at the top, followed by a backward 'S', then another 'X', a diamond, and finally another 'X'. Third column is decorated with 2 intertwining lines forming ovals that contain different patterns. Fourth column is decorated with a central backward 'S' flanked at the top and bottom by 2 'X's. Fifth column is decorated with a central zigzag line surrounded by different floral elements.

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