
Splendore delle virtuose giovani, page 9 (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; only left column is printed upon a grid. Left column is decorated with a vase in the center that is flanked by 2 reclining female composite figures with leaves for legs that turn into coiling vines with leaves. Middle column is decorated with a wavy vine with an alternating pattern of flowers and white dotted leaves. Right column is decorated with a grotesque head in the center to which 2 coiling vines with leaves and grapes are attached.
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.