Trionfo Di Virtu. Libro Novo..., page 9 (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 composed of 6 horizontal registers. First register is decorated with a pattern of 3 interlace motifs in the shape of a quatrefoil. Second register is decorated with a pattern of flowers that are connected in pairs by their intertwining stems. Third register is decorated with a pattern of diamonds that each frame a 4-petaled flower in the center. Fourth register is decorated with a pattern of flowers with stems that form a heart shape around them. Fifth register is decorated with a pattern of flower with curving leaves that encircle them. Sixth register is decorated with an interlace pattern formed by several intertwining lines.

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