Female Nude Seen from Behind

Albrecht Dürer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The early sixteenth century marked the height of the “Dürer Renaissance,” during which the artistic master’s initials were so famous that their duplication by other artists was recognized as a crime. Though this relief follows a composition by Dürer and is marked with his monogram, it was made after his death and falsely monogrammed and backdated, perhaps to satisfy the demand of the affluent collectors who competed to acquire his works. Indeed, this relief may be identical to a “female nude cut in stone by AD” in the 1607–11 inventory of Emperor Rudolf II’s Kunstkammer in Prague.

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