Ewer (Brocca)

Medici Porcelain Manufactory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The first identifiable porcelain produced in Europe was made in the Medici court workshops in Florence in the late sixteenth century. Under the patronage of Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, experiments began around 1574 to make porcelain in imitation of Chinese blue and white wares, which were highly prized in Europe. While Chinese and Ottoman ceramics influenced the decoration of Medici porcelain, many of the forms produced in the ducal workshop were indebted to contemporary hard-stone vessels or goldsmith's work, as in the case of this ewer. Approximately sixty of pieces of Medici porcelain are known to have survived.

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