William Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon, Future Second Earl of Bessborough

William Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon, Future Second Earl of Bessborough

Johann Lorenz Natter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

His lapidary excellence lead the German medalist Johann Lorenz Natter to Switzerland, Venice, Florence, England, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and Russia, where he died. William Ponsonby (1704–1793), an influential parliamentary politician, was an original member of the band of aesthetes known as the Dilettanti Society. Natter presented him sparely, with cropped hair, in the neo-Roman style of budding Neoclassicism. The ground stratum is carved so thin as to be transparent, allowing a delicate play of light. A companion cameo dated 1750 of Ponsonby’s wife, Lady Caroline, née Cavendish, was auctioned at Christie’s in London in 1923 but has left no subsequent trace.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

William Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon, Future Second Earl of BessboroughWilliam Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon, Future Second Earl of BessboroughWilliam Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon, Future Second Earl of BessboroughWilliam Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon, Future Second Earl of BessboroughWilliam Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon, Future Second Earl of Bessborough

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.