Footed dish with Diana and Actaeon

Fra Xanto Avelli da Rovigo

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The painter has decorated the shallow, rimless bowl of this footed dish with a scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The uninterrupted composition suggests that the bowl would have arrived at the table already laden (probably with fruit or sweetmeats), at first concealing the story. As diners consumed the treats, they would gradually reveal the sad tale of Actaeon, a hunter transformed into a stag as punishment for having glimpsed the goddess Diana at her bath.

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