Ornamento nobile...Fatta da Lucretia Romana (Libro V of the Corona), page 3 (recto)

Cesare Vecellio

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Written by Cesare Vecellio, Italian, Pieve di Cadore 1521-1601 Venice, published by Alessandro de' Vecchi. From top to bottom, and left to right: Design forms triangular shape that is divided into 3 horizontal registers. Top register is decorated with a vase of plants that is flanked on either side by a composite man, bird, and foliage creature. Middle register is decorated with composite human and plant creatures resembling atlantes that support an architectural frieze above. Bottom register is decorated with left half of a man and plant composite creature that appears to serve as a type of decorative element.

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