Corona delle Nobili et Virtuose Donne: Libro I-IV, page 79 (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 multiple sections. Decorating the top left corner is a large floral and figural element, which attaches to a rectangular base ornamented with different foliage patterns, one of which includes a figural representation. At the top edge (right of center) is a set of curving vines on top of an ornamented rectangular base. At the lower left corner is an ornamented triangle.

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