Splendore delle virtuose giovani, page 2 (recto)

Splendore delle virtuose giovani, page 2 (recto)

Iseppo Foresto

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Designed by Iseppo Foresto, published by Jeronimo Calepino, Venice. From top to bottom, and left to right: Design composed of 3 vertical columns; first 2 columns are printed upon a grid. Left column is decorated with a pattern of 4-petaled flowers. Middle column is decorated with an alternating pattern of an interlace motif followed by 2 white dotted leaves that connect to form hearts shapes with a black leaf inside. Right column is decorated with an urn at the center, flanked by 2 female composite figures with wings for arms and leaves for legs; next to the composite female creature are 2 composite boy figures with spotted deer legs that hold onto a coiling vine.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Splendore delle virtuose giovani, page 2 (recto)Splendore delle virtuose giovani, page 2 (recto)Splendore delle virtuose giovani, page 2 (recto)Splendore delle virtuose giovani, page 2 (recto)Splendore delle virtuose giovani, page 2 (recto)

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.