Casket (cassetta)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The sides of this casket are decorated with scenes of dancing figures and musicians, chariots, and figures before a cityscape, framed by classical pilasters at the corners. It has been suggested that the pastiglia was left uncolored to simulate ivory, the creamy white surface of which was frequently compared to female beauty—appropriate given that these caskets probably held toilet implements. Molded pastiglia, a composition consisting of either gesso or pulverized white lead with an egg binder to which musk was added, was applied to the surface of small caskets and deliberately left ungilt and unpainted, so that the relief exuded a musky scent. The technique was introduced to Ferrarese craftsmen at the end of the 1440s by a French immigrant, Carlo di Monlione.

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