Lucidario di Recami, page 16 (verso)

Art Historical Context

Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints collection, where we encounter *Lucidario di Recami, page 16 (verso)*, a delicate woodcut from 1564 crafted by Iseppo Foresto and Jeronimo Calepino. This compact page, measuring just 7 7/8 x 5 7/8 inches, is part of a rare Renaissance pattern book dedicated to embroidery designs—*recami* in Italian—showcasing intricate motifs of intertwining flowers, leaves, and vines. Acquired through the Rogers Fund in 1921, it exemplifies the era's fascination with nature-inspired ornamentation. Woodcuts like this were revolutionary for their time, enabling printers to reproduce elaborate patterns affordably on paper, which artisans then adapted for textiles, lace, and decorative objects. Foresto and Calepino, working in mid-16th-century Italy, contributed to a booming tradition of *libri di modelli* (model books), spreading motifs across Europe and influencing crafts from Venice to Flanders. These designs bridged art and everyday life, turning botanical elegance into wearable luxury. This page invites us to appreciate the Renaissance blend of precision and whimsy: vines curl with lifelike grace, flowers bloom in stylized symmetry, evoking gardens frozen in ink. It's a window into how 16th-century makers democratized beauty, one printed leaf at a time.

About the Artist

Iseppo Foresto|Jeronimo Calepino (Italian|Italian) · 1520 |1500 –1580 |1600

Italian, active Venice, 1557|