Sphinx

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sphinxes all’antica, like Medusa heads, were enigmas often invoked in Neoclassical decorative arts. Someone took pains to preserve this piece after it broke, expertly repairing it with closely matched stone, then gluing it to a glass backing that has since been removed from the quartz ground layer.

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