Julius Caesar

Colin Nouailher

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This portrait of Julius Caesar is part of a series depicting the Nine Worthies, historical figures thought to embody the values of chivalry—from antiquity: Hector, Alexander, and Julius Caesar; from the Old Testament: Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabeus; and from the Middle Ages: King Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godefroy de Bouillon. The Nine Worthies were first extolled as exemplars of the chivalric code by Jacques de Longuyon, in his romance Les Voeux du Paon (The Vows of the Peacock, ca. 1312), and thereafter became a popular subject in French literature and art.

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