Lucidario di Recami, page 15 (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 4 vertical columns printed upon a grid. First column is decorated in the center with a fountain that is framed inside of a hexagonal shape with two vines forming heart shapes at its sides. Second column is decorated with 2 curving vines with flowers that are at attached in the center by a horizontal band. Third column is decorated in the center with a flower that is flanked on either side by a rabbit that has a tail forming a leaf to a vine. Fourth column is decorated in the center with a flower that is flanked on either side by a dragon with a tail that forms into a nude male figure with an arm that becomes a coiling vine and leaf.

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