Teatro delle Nobili et Virtuose Donne..., page 21 (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 4 horizontal registers that form a corner. First register is decorated with small squares that are ornamented with an alternating pattern of a motif comprised of 2 triangles and another motif formed by an 'x' superimposed over a circle. Second register is decorated with an alternating pattern of snowflakes and quatrefoils. Third register is decorated with the same pattern as that of the first. Fourth register is decorated with rounded triangular motifs that are ornamented with an alternating pattern of a quatrefoil and a snowflake.

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