Sleeping shepherdess in a moonlit landscape

Alessandro Masnago

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gems carved with highly pictorial evocations of nature by the great virtuoso Alessandro Masnago were eagerly sought by collectors, particularly Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. The thoroughgoing artistry with which Masnago could discern the marvels inherent in a piece of stone still causes the beholder to gaze in wonder and delight at this shepherdess sleeping with her flock and her dog amid the moonbeams and treetops elicited from the hues and forms of a variegated agate, akin to moss agate.

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