Pluto and Cerberus

Tiziano Aspetti

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pluto, the god of the underworld, stands with the three-headed hound Cerberus, who guards its gates. This impressive bronze group, produced in Venice under the influence of the sculptor Jacopo Sansovino, was left unfinished at several stages. First, it seems to have been interrupted when the artist was working in wax, possibly not ready to have it cast, as various areas that were left rough in this state were not effaced. Nonetheless, the sketchy wax was cast in bronze, although we do not know when. Nor was the bronze properly finished, as remnants of the casting process also remain. Finally, the sculpture was painted black to disguise the disunity of the surface. Thus this work remains a remarkable document of an interrupted sculptural project.

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