Corona delle Nobili et Virtuose Donne: Libro I-IV, page 82 (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 3 horizontal registers. Each register is decorated on the top edge with a zigzagging line. Top register is decorated with a floral motif, 2 intertwining fish that flank a central mask, and a female figure surrounded by a curving vine with a flower at the top. Middle register is decorated with a flower flanked on both sides by a bird, an anchor with a fish coiled around it, and 2 cornucopias intertwining around a straight line. Bottom register is decorated with a bird flying out of 2 cornucopias, a squatting nude figure holding a crown above his head, and an urn flanked by 2 unicorns.

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