Corona delle Nobili et Virtuose Donne: Libro I-IV, page 49 (recto)

Cesare Vecellio

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published by Cesare Vecellio, Italian, Pieve di Cadore 1521-1601 Venice, Venice. From top to bottom, and left to right: Design composed of 2 horizontal registers. Top register is decorated with a coiling vine of leaves that forms a figure-8 shape, which is superimposed by a spotted bird on the right side. Bottom register is decorated in the center with a vase of flowers that is flanked on both sides by a composite creature with a human face, lion body, and bird wing; this creature's tail attaches to the flower that exists on its outer side.

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