La Gloria et l'Honore di Ponti Tagliati, E Ponti in Aere, page 3 (recto)

Matteo Pagano

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published by Matteo Pagano, Italian, 1515-1588, Venice. From top to bottom, and left to right: Design composed of 5 vertical columns printed upon a grid. First column is decorated with a curving vine of 4-petaled flowers and 3-sided leaves, some of which are black and some are white with dots. Second column is decorated with an alternating pattern of acorns and white dotted leaves. Third column is decorated with a curving vine of leaves that are white with dots and solid black. Fourth column is decorated with an alternating pattern of white dotted 4-petaled flowers and black leaves. Fifth column is decorated with a curving vine of white dotted 4-petaled flowers, leaves that are white with dots and solid black, and pieces of fruit, including a pineapple and grapes.

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