Mantel clock ("Pendule Uranie")

Mantel clock ("Pendule Uranie")

Jean-André Lepaute

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In Jean-André Lepaute’s 1766 price list, this model is listed as Pendule Urania (Muse of Astronomy) and is said to be after a model by the sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon. The scroll in Urania’s hand has symbols for Scorpio and Libra. At the feet of the putto is a chart for the lunar eclipse that occurred on April 1, 1764, reproducing the prediction made by Jean-André’s wife, the mathematician Madame Lepaute, published in 1762.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mantel clock ("Pendule Uranie")Mantel clock ("Pendule Uranie")Mantel clock ("Pendule Uranie")Mantel clock ("Pendule Uranie")Mantel clock ("Pendule Uranie")

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.