Prima parte de' fiori, page 8 (recto)

Giovanni Battista Ciotti

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Written by Giovanni Battista Ciotti, printed by Nicolo Moretti, Venice, published by Francesco de' Franceschi, Italian, active 16th century. From top to bottom, and left to right: Design composed of 3 horizontal registers. Top register is decorated with 3 upside-down flowers that hang from an ornamented rectangular base. Middle register is decorated with 4 rounded triangular motifs, which are ornamented with the same pattern characterized by triangles and stacking semi-circles. Bottom register is decorated with 4 squares containing an alternating pattern of circles with a central floral motif.

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