Vase with filigree decoration

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The bands of white opaque glass that swirl around this vase are an example of filigree decoration. The first records for filigree glass in Venice date to 1527. Netted versions called reticello resemble lacework. Though the bead maker Dominique Bussolin first revived the technique in 1838, it initially found little commercial success until the Risorgimento.

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