Hercules and Nessus

Annibale Fontana

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the major glyptic artists working in Milan during the second half of the sixteenth century, Fontana engraved exquisitely luminous Late Mannerist scenes from classical mythology and biblical subjects in rock crystal. A casket, set with Fontana's rock-crystal plaques and made for Albrecht V, duke of Bavaria (r. 1550–79), can still to be seen in the Schatzkammer of the Munich Residenz. The Metropolitan Museum's medallion is one of a series of six surviving rock crystals engraved with episodes from the story of Hercules; the medallions were removed from a casket, now destroyed, that once belonged to the Gonzaga duke of Mantua, Vincenzo I (r. 1587–1612). The casket, ornamented with gold and pearls, would have been highly valued as a splendid example of Milanese goldsmiths' work, as well as of intaglio engraving.

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