Ce est ung tractat de la noble art de leguille ascavoir ouvraiges de spaigne... page 20 (recto)
after 1527
Medium
Woodcut
Dimensions
Overall: 6 7/8 x 5 11/16 in. (17.5 x 14.5 cm)
Classification
Books|(not assigned)|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mary M. Greenwood, in memory of Eliza Rudd Greenwood, 1953
Accession Number
53.566.3(39)
Tags
Art Historical Context
This woodcut page comes from a rare early sixteenth-century pattern book printed in Antwerp by Willem Vosterman after 1527. Titled *Ce est ung tractat de la noble art de leguille ascavoir ouvraiges de spaigne*, the volume served as a practical guide to embroidery and needlework techniques associated with Spanish styles then fashionable across Europe. As page 20 recto, it presents ornamental motifs intended as templates for skilled needleworkers, reflecting the growing demand for accessible design sources among both professionals and amateurs. Printed pattern books like this one marked an impo...
About the Artist
Willem Vosterman
Willem Vosterman was a Netherlandish engraver and printmaker who worked within the rich tradition of graphic art that flourished in the Low Countries during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Precise details of his birth, death, and training are not firmly established in the historical record, but his surviving prints reflect the skilled craftsmanship and commercial acuity that characterized...