Mercury

Severo Calzetta da Ravenna

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mercury, with open mouth and fairly expansive gesture (his left hand once held a caduceus), appears in his role as god of eloquence. A more energetic variation of the model has bulging thighs.[1] Squarish plugs, characteristic of Severo’s workshop, are above the buttocks. The statuette was later mounted by two screws to a waisted bronze socle with a beaded molding, and a green patina of uncertain date was probably supplied to make the piece look “Roman.” -JDD Footnotes (For key to shortened references see bibliography in Allen, Italian Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022.) 1. Private collection, Munich (as “Meister der Götterfiguren”), per Weihrauch 1967, fig. 125.

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