La Vera Perfettione del Disegno di varie sorti di recami, page 5 (recto)

Giovanni Ostaus

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published by Giovanni Ostaus, Venice, woodcut of Lucrezia designed by Giuseppe Salviati (Giuseppe Porta, called Il Salviati), Italian, Castelnuova di Garfagnana ca. 1520-1575 Venice. From top to bottom, and left to right: Design composed of 4 horizontal registers that are printed upon a grid. First register is decorated with a pattern of curving leaves that are connected to one another by horizontal bands. Second register is decorated with a wavy vine of an alternating pattern of black leaves and white dotted flowers. Third register is decorated with a coiling vine of leaves, acorns, and fruit. Fourth register is decorated with a coiling vine of primarily dotted white flowers and leaves.

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