Tobacco box

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The lid of this oval box depicts a hefty Neptune with a trident, reclining against an urn. Inscribed below: Dee Zee Godt (The Sea God). The underside shows a scene with a sailing vessel, a walking man, and a tortoise. Inscribed below: All tini [?] Although the inscription's meaning is unclear, the scene perhaps relates to an emblem in Jacob Cats's Silenus Alcibiadis Sive Proteus of 1622, in which a turtle is depicted against a similar background with sailing vessel (see Figure 13). The motto published with the emblem, "Fugiendo non effugit," means that wherever one goes his burden accompanies him. (This, of course, is particularly true of the turtle.) With lined and corded rims, molded edges. The borders and sides are decorated with chevron ornament.

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