Clock

Franz Xavier Gegenreiner

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The play of textures on the case of this clock characterizes the commanding originality of Augsburg silversmith Johann Andreas Thelot, who became one of the city’s most celebrated artisans. The reliefs are framed with gilded curtains to create stagelike scenes devoted to the goddess Venus at her toilette (top), Diana and three nymphs (right), Venus and Mars (bottom), and Vulcan and his consort, Venus (left). The small relief accentuating the base illustrates the four seasons, recalling the eternal passage of time. The quarter-striking movement was fitted in this astonishing case about fifty years after its production.

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