Chessmen (32) and board with box

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The chessmen, which were cut on the lapidary's wheel from cylindrical shapes, are nonfigural except for the knight, which terminates in a horse's head, and the rook, which terminates in an elephant's head. The other pieces are balusterlike, the king, queen, and pawns being very similar in shape, diminishing in size. The bishops are spindle-like. The set showns a fusion of Hindu and European influences in a basic nonfigural set; the former in the displacement of the elephant as bishop and its identification with the rook. The horse head suggests English influence. The set was acquired in Bombay. A board that came with it has a molding and ball feet of gilt bronze, and squares of jade and striated onyx marble, each inlaid in the center with mother-of-pearl stars.

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