Bather

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The facial features and tight curls indicate that this is a woman of African descent. With her hair wound in a bathing turban and a washcloth clasped in her hand, she pauses entranced by her reflection in a mirror. Statuettes of idealized female bathers were often identified as Venus, goddess of love. This bronze’s popular title, "Black Venus," reflects the rarity of using an African model for the depiction of female beauty during the Renaissance.

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