Mortar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This modest object is an example of the utilitarian metalwork produced and used in massive numbers throughout the sixteenth century. An everyday version of the fantastic and virtuoso display mortars such as 2016.492 and 2017.11), the working mortar is made from bell metal: hard-wearing but considerably cheaper than bronze because of its higher tin content. All the same, it was decorated—cast from a mold lightly embellished with a simple, repeating crowned-dolphin motif.

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