Calligraphic Exercise in Italian

Calligraphic Exercise in Italian

Anonymous

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Calligraphic exercize in Italian, presented in a double rectangular frame. The text begins with the words 'Grave impresa sopra dise prende ciascuno che ha da dimostrar (...)' and runs for six lines. The initial 'G' is decorated and the text is flanked by two calligraphic swirls on each side. Part of an album with 26 examples of calligraphy and micrography, thought to have been produced in France or possibly Antwerp at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.