Millefiori bowl

Vincenzo Moretti

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The term millefiori (“thousand flowers”) describes modern Italian imitations of ancient Roman mosaic glass. Multicolored glass rods, known as canes, are cut into slices, with the design revealed in the cross section. These are fused together to form the bowl and create the delicate pattern seen here.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art