Studio delle virtuose Dame, page 24 (recto)

Isabella Catanea Parasole

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Designed by Isabella Catanea Parasole, Italian, ca. 1575-ca. 1625, published by Antonio Fachetti, Rome. From top to bottom, and left to right: Design composed of 4 horizontal registers. First register is decorated with a wavy vine of flowers. Second register is decorated with squares ornamented with 2 different floral motifs. Third register is decorated with a wavy vine of flowers. Fourth register consists of a central section that is decorated with squares ornamented with an alternating pattern of a floral and circular motifs; this central section is framed on the top and bottom by a border ornamented with diamonds and lines.

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