Beardman or Bellarmine jug

Beardman or Bellarmine jug

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The motif of a bearded face is carved in low relief at the neck of this jug. Known as Beardman or Bellarmine jugs, these stoneware vessels were made in Cologne and the Rhineland beginning in the sixteenth century.


European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.