Essempio di recammi, page 8 (verso)

Art Historical Context

This woodcut page comes from *Essempio di recammi* (Examples of Embroidery), a pattern book published in Venice in 1530 by Giovanni Antonio Tagliente. Created during the height of the Italian Renaissance, the volume served as a practical guide for needleworkers, offering intricate ornamental designs that could be transferred onto fabrics for clothing, linens, and furnishings. The medium of woodcut allowed these motifs—ranging from delicate floral scrolls to geometric interlacing—to be printed affordably and distributed widely, democratizing access to fashionable decorative ideas. Tagliente, a calligrapher and designer, specialized in instructional manuals that bridged art and craft. His patterns reflect the period’s fascination with symmetry, nature, and classical motifs, helping elevate embroidery from a domestic task to a refined artistic pursuit. As part of the Metropolitan Museum’s collection of ornament and architecture prints, this small sheet (roughly the size of a modern paperback) reveals how printed books shaped visual culture in the sixteenth century, preserving ephemeral textile designs for generations of makers and collectors.

About the Artist

Giovanni Antonio di Nicolini da Sabio e i fratelli|Giovanni Antonio Tagliente (Italian|Italian) · 1522 |1465 –1545 |1528

Italian, active Venice, ca. 1522–1545|Italian, Venice ca. 1465–1528 Venice