Allegory of the Fine Arts

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An allegory of the arts of drawing and painting, this shaped plaquette may have come from a piece of furniture by the cabinetmaker Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806) who worked frequently for Queen Marie Antoinette and for other members of the French court.

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