Bust of Pope Pius VI (Giovanni Angelo Braschi, 1717–1799)

Christian Friedrich Hecker

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although he grew pudgy with age, Pius VI (r. 1775–99) was invariably praised as a fine figure of a man and was more frequently captured in hardstone than any pontiff before or since. His important collection of ancient glyptics was looted and dispersed during the French occupation of Rome.

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