Shepherd and Shepherdess

Shepherd and Shepherdess

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A variation on a common design source can be seen in this embroidered scene of a piping shepherd and shepherdess posed within a pastoral landscape. Dressed in contemporary costume, the figures stand as emblems of courtship in a luxuriant garden that conjures up associations with springtime, youth, and fertility.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.