Ornamento delle belle & virtuose donne, page 24 (recto)

Art Historical Context

This woodcut print comes *Ornamento delle belle virtuose donne*, a 1554 pattern book printed in Venice by Matteo Pagano Measuring just 7½ by 5⅞ inches, the page offers an elegant ornamental design featuring deer motifs, intended as inspiration for embroidery, lace, or other decorative needlework. Such books were popular in Renaissance Italy, providing women with elegant patterns that combined beauty with moral virtue, as suggested by the title. Woodcut technique was ideally suited to these volumes, allowing intricate designs to be carved into wood blocks and printed in multiple copies for wide circulation. Pagano, a noted Venetian publisher, helped spread these ornamental ideas across Europe at a time when printed pattern books were transforming domestic crafts into shared artistic pursuits. Today the sheet is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Drawings and Prints, where it illustrates how Renaissance ornament merged natural imagery with practical design for everyday elegance.

About the Artist

Matteo Pagano|Lloyd, Wallis & Lloyd · 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 ...