Candlestick from a Set of Five-Piece Altar Set (Wugong)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cloisonné is the technique of creating designs on metal vessels with colored glass paste placed within enclosures made of copper or bronze wires, which have been bent or hammered into the desired patterns. Known as cloisons (French for "partitions"), the enclosures are generally either glued or soldered onto the metal body. The glass paste, or enamel—which gets its color from metallic oxides—is painted into the contained areas of the design. The vessel is usually fired at a relatively low temperature, about 800 degrees Celsius. Enamels tend to shrink during firing, and the process is repeated several times to fill in the design. Once this process is completed, the surface of the vessel is rubbed until the edges of the cloisons are visible.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art