Folding Fan with Representation of a Gothic Revival Arcade, perhaps a Souvenir of Stowe

Folding Fan with Representation of a Gothic Revival Arcade, perhaps a Souvenir of Stowe

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A glimpse of lush treetops suggests a landscape garden setting. Indeed, this fan might be a celebration of an actual garden, Stowe in Buckinghamshire. The pointed arches, trefoils and inventive tracery all recall its Gothick 'Temple of Liberty', designed by James Gibbs, completed in 1741. The bridge-like composition, playing upon the fan's format, in turn evokes Stowe's much-admired Palladian Bridge, whose sun-filled arcade had to be crossed to reach the Temple beyond. Wildly popular with society visitors from the 1750s into the Victorian period, this may be a souvenir fan, part of the same tradition as the Chiswick Villa fan (90.2.27) and fans with Scenes of Vesuvius (14.73, 63.90.26, 63.90.73) also in The Met's collection.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Folding Fan with Representation of a Gothic Revival Arcade, perhaps a Souvenir of StoweFolding Fan with Representation of a Gothic Revival Arcade, perhaps a Souvenir of StoweFolding Fan with Representation of a Gothic Revival Arcade, perhaps a Souvenir of StoweFolding Fan with Representation of a Gothic Revival Arcade, perhaps a Souvenir of StoweFolding Fan with Representation of a Gothic Revival Arcade, perhaps a Souvenir of Stowe

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.