Ornamento delle belle & virtuose donne, page 22 (recto)

Matteo Pagano

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published by Matteo Pagano, Italian, 1515-1588, Venice, bound by Lloyd, Wallis & Lloyd, British, active London after 1821. From top to bottom, and left to right: Design composed of 6 horizontal registers. First register is decorated with a central pattern of overlapping diamonds and hexagons that is surrounded on the top and bottom by a curving vine with leaves. Second register is decorated with 2 diamond shapes containing an interlace motif, which are surrounded by smaller diamonds and 8-petaled flowers. Third register is decorated with a pattern of sideways 'S's. Fourth register is decorated with a pattern of diamonds containing a series of smaller diamonds stacked upon one another. Fifth register is decorated with an alternating pattern of a group of 4 diamonds followed by a group of 8 diamonds. Sixth register is decorated with a white zigzagging line upon a black background.

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