The Judgment of Solomon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This undulating curiosity is carved on the top, sides, and back. On the back, in appreciably low relief and a flowing, Italianate style, is the Resurrection of Christ, the basic features of which are found on a stone in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. The front bears a Judgment of Solomon in much the same quirky style as the cramped enactments of Jacob’s Dream and Elijah in the Fiery Chariot along the sides. The Solomon scene also occurs on a cameo in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The carver of the Metropolitan cameo most likely used the gems in Paris and Vienna as sources, rather than the other way around. The chunky object is drilled through from top to bottom; it may have been suspended, but it is rather weighty to have been worn as a pendant.

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