Panel of 4 cuenca tiles

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This panel of four tiles illustrates the persistence of Islamic design principles; however, the cuenca, or arista, technique, in which the colors are prevented from mingling in the firing process by raised borders molded in the clay, has replaced the earlier Islamic cuerda seca method, examples of which may be seen in the case to the left. The geometric pattern would have been repeated to cover a large area of wall or ceiling.

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