Goblet (Roemer)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The challenging size of this drinking beaker reveals the work of a master glassblower. It displays the medium’s admired qualities of transparency, malleability of shape, and capacity for surface decoration—here, delicate gold and probably oil-resin-painting. The Venetian-style glass shown nearby was sought after by princely collectors for display in their curiosity cabinets; this piece is more typical of the local Germanic glassmaking tradition. The northern European form—with a broad, hollow stem covered with relief dots, called prunts—prevented slippage as it was passed from one greasy-handed diner to another in a communal toast. [Elizabeth Cleland, 2017]

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