Large murrine bowl

Venezia-Murano Company

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This unpolished bowl is similar to the mounted example displayed in 1881 in Milan, at Italy’s first Universal Exposition. It is characteristic of murrine decoration, a term coined by Abbot Zanetti in the nineteenth century to describe the imitation of ancient Roman mosaic glass. Venetian bead makers helped to perfect the technique.

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