Cup with cover

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Originally a Kunstkammer piece, this covered cup was later converted to a reliquary with the addition of a hook. Some believed rock crystal to be the frozen tears of the gods; the material was often used in reliquaries because its limpid transparency allowed visual access to the divine and associated it with heaven’s light. The increasing worship of relics and inflating number of new canonizations were two aspects of Catholicism that led Martin Luther to initiate the Reformation.

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