Choir screen panel (one of six)

Nicolas Castille

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

These panels constitute an early example of the French use of the ancient candelabra motif, favored in Italy, in which abstract ornament, fantastic beings, fruits, and foliage are combined in a vertical arrangement. The roundels at the bottom feature pairs of figures or scenes, such as Saint George slaying the dragon and a musician performing with his dancing dog next to a woman holding a monkey, as well as a profile portrait of the patron, Cardinal Georges d’Amboise (1460–1510). The panels were originally part of a screen separating the choir from the rest of the chapel at the cardinal’s celebrated château de Gaillon in Normandy. The Rouen woodworker Colin Castille supervised the carving of the panels, one of which is based on a design by Giovanni Pietro da Birago (act. 1490-1513).

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