Teatro delle Nobili et Virtuose Donne..., page 11 (recto)

Isabella Catanea Parasole

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Written by Isabella Catanea Parasole, Italian, ca. 1575-ca. 1625, published by Mauritio Bona, Rome. From top to bottom, and left to right: Design composed of 5 horizontal registers that form a corner. First register is decorated with a flower that is attached to the inside of the corner. Second register is decorated with a pattern of foliage forming 'S' shapes. Third register is decorated with a pattern of coiling vines and flowers that flank a central foliage element in the shape of an 'X' with fleurs-de-lis at each of its corners and an eagle above it. Fourth register is decorated with an alternating pattern of right-side up and upside-down 'u' shapes. Fifth register is decorated with a pattern of flowers with encircling stems; the middle flower has a cross at its center.

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