Study for Galatea

Auguste Rodin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rodin challenged sculptural ideals by leaving his figures in varying states of incompletion. In this study for the marble Pygmalion and Galatea, the figure of Galatea emerges gracefully from a shapeless plinth. The truncated and faceless figure evokes the process of artistic formation through expressive fragments.

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