Cosimo de' Medici (1519–1574), Duke of Florence and Grand Duke of Tuscany

Grand-ducal workshops, Florence

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lapis lazuli is a notoriously brittle medium for detailed carving, but the highly specialized Florentine grand-ducal workshops overcame many challenges as they fashioned and assembled hardstones. This portrait of Cosimo de’ Medici is more generalized than those on the medals it is based on, no doubt owing to the extra caution that had to be taken with the drilling. The cameo appears in Medici inventories, described as framed in ebony, between 1588 and 1628.

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