Trionfo Di Virtu. Libro Novo..., page 12 (recto)

Matteo Pagano

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published by Matteo Pagano, Italian, 1515-1588, Venice. From top to bottom, and left to right: Design is decorated with 5 shapes. On the left half of the design is a narrow rectangle ornamented with a Moresque pattern that forms heart shapes and a vertical rectangle that is ornamented with a larger Moresque characterized by vines of flowers and leaves. On the right half of the design is a square ornamented with a 4-petaled flower characterized by a diamond at its center, a circle with an interlace pattern, and another square with different 4-petaled flower in the 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