Lucidario di Recami, page 9 (verso)

Iseppo Foresto

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Designed by Iseppo Foresto, published by Jeronimo Calepino, 1564. From top to bottom, and left to right: Design composed of 3 vertical columns printed upon a grid. Left column is decorated with 2 intertwining vines that form ovals containing dotted leaves and flowers. Middle column is decorated with a central circular element that is illustrated with 2 birds in its innermost section and 4-petaled flower border on the outermost section; this central element is flanked on the sides by foliage. Right column is decorated with a coiling black vine with white dotted leaves and flowers.

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