Bird

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The coveted qualities of both natural wonder (naturalia) and fine craftsmanship (artificialia) are embodied in this hollow vessel. In the 1500s, rock crystal was priced at its weight in gold. The material’s extreme hardness allows it to be worked—cut, carved, or drilled—without shattering, while at its finest, as here, it is luminous and transparent. Through artistry, a pricey mass of heavy pure quartz has here been transformed into a seemingly weightless bird, complete with beady eyes of ruby and a collar and legs of gilded silver.

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