La Gloria et l'Honore di Ponti Tagliati, E Ponti in Aere, page 11 (verso)

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 books like Pagano’s helped spread fashionable motifs—here including birds, lions, flowers, and female figures—across Europe, influencing embroidery, furniture, and even architectural decoration. Their classification among ornament and architecture prints underscores how lace patterns were viewed as part of a broader decorative vocabulary. Today the sheet is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of drawings and prints, acquired through the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund in 1929. It offers visitors a vivid glimpse of how Renaissance printmaking bridged fine art and everyday craftsmanship.

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 ...