Hercules and Omphale

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In this bold late Baroque design, whose curvilinear forms are enunciated with admirable clarity, the sexual roles of Hercules and Omphale (whom we encountered in stately profile format in 38.150.14) are reversed: Omphale excitedly assumes the hero’s lion-skin mantle, her leg nudging his, while he sinks into sedentary torpor.

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