Corona delle Nobili et Virtuose Donne: Libro I-IV, page 104 (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 4 horizontal registers. First register is decorated in the center with a flower that is flanked on either side by a composite man and lion creature that in turn surrounds both sides of another flower. Second register is decorated with an alternating pattern of a diamond and a quatrefoil that are ornamented in the center with a flower. Third register is decorated with multiple floral motifs. Fourth register is decorated with a pattern of circles containing different 4-petaled flowers.

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