Two-handled vase

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the late fourteenth century, Spanish potters developed a technique called lustering that gave their earthenware a shimmering iridescence. Italian potters went to Spain as spies to learn the secret recipe, and a century later, artists in Umbria became the first in Italy to master the technique. The initials on this pot (R and F ) may refer to a couple—such vases were probably purchased by newlyweds putting together their household.

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