La Gloria et l'Honore di Ponti Tagliati, E Ponti in Aere, page 11 (verso)
1556
Medium
Woodcut
Dimensions
Overall: 8 1/4 x 6 1/8 in. (21 x 15.5 cm)
Classification
Books|Prints|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1929
Accession Number
29.59.1(22)
Tags
Art Historical Context
This woodcut by the Venetian printer and designer Matteo Pagano comes from his 1556 pattern book *La Gloria et l'Honore di Ponti Tagliati, E Ponti in Aere*. Created as page 11 verso, it belongs to a practical volume offering models for cutwork lace and “points in air,” delicate openwork textiles highly prized in Renaissance Europe. Measuring just over eight by six inches, the print demonstrates how woodcut allowed intricate ornamental designs to be reproduced affordably for artisans and gentlewomen. Sixteenth-century Venice was a center of both printing and luxury textile production. Pattern ...
About the Artist
Matteo Pagano · 1515–1588
**Matteo Pagano (c. 1515–1588)** was a prominent Venetian printer, publisher, woodcut artist, and illustrator whose innovative designs bridged fine art and the decorative crafts during the Renaissance. Little is known about his early life, which remains sparsely documented, but he began his career as a woodblock cutter, working for the publisher Nicolò Zoppino on pattern books before establishing ...