Triton and Nereid

Auguste Rodin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This terracotta sketch of sensuously entwined sea deities reveals Rodin’s direct engagement with the subject of the female nude. The figure of Triton—caressing the Nereid’s voluptuously modeled torso—embodies the spirit of Rodin’s desire and veneration for the female body. The Met commissioned an over-life-size marble version of this work, but Rodin never completed it.

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