Tankard (Schnelle)

Hans Hilgers

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A utilitarian drinking vessel, this tankard is nevertheless richly decorated. The three rectangular reliefs depict scenes from the Old Testament stories of Joseph, Joshua, and David, surrounded by classicizing decorative motifs. Each relief was likely one of many molded individually before being applied to the tankard’s body. By the seventeenth century, sturdy German stoneware tankards were a common export to England and to colonists in America. They were prized for their ability to retain liquids because of their nonporous ceramic bodies.

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