Fiori di Ricami Nuovamente Posti in Luce, page 4 (recto)

This woodcut is page 4 (recto) from Matteo Florimi's 1591 pattern book, 'Fiori di Ricami Nuovamente Posti in Luce,' which translates roughly as 'Flowers of Embroidery Newly Brought to Light.' Published in Siena, this book belongs to a rich tradition of 16th-century needlework pattern books that served as practical guides for professional and domestic embroiderers across Europe. Florimi, active as a publisher and printmaker between roughly 1540 and 1603, produced this extensive series of woodcut designs at a time when such pattern books were among the most commercially successful printed materials in circulation. The Metropolitan Museum holds nearly the entire series, offering a rare opportunity to appreciate the book as a complete artistic and utilitarian object.

Each page of the 'Fiori di Ricami' presents intricate geometric and floral motifs rendered in the crisp black-and-white language of the woodcut medium. The designs are laid out on a grid framework — essentially a visual language of counted stitches — making them directly transferable to canvas or linen. These patterns reflect the late Renaissance taste for symmetrical, interlocking ornamental forms drawn from botanical, architectural, and abstract sources. Page 4 sits near the beginning of the sequence, likely presenting foundational or introductory patterns before the designs grow more elaborate in later pages.