Fluted vase with dolphins

Venezia-Murano Company

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The rippled edge of this fluted vase and the twisted tails of the dolphins recall the exaggerated forms of baroque glass that caught the eye of King Frederick IV of Denmark when he visited Venice in 1708. This showpiece demonstrates how nineteenth-century glassmakers remastered—and in some cases surpassed—earlier techniques.

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