Chessmen (29)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The stands, hats, and crowns of the figures on the mowers' (black) side are of a naturally dark horn. There are also faint traces of an orange-brown stain on some of the pieces of the dark side, and all the figures have traces of red paint for the lips. This charming set was originally, therefore, much more colorful than it is now. It is one of those sets in which the theme of the opposition is seen in the pawns rather than the principal pieces, which are identical on the two sides. Both kings wear the divided Austrian crown. The bishops are couriers, and the rearing horses for the knights are fully modeled but riderless. The rooks are towers with very large bell-shaped finials. Pawns, peasants, on the white side are threshers with flails, on the dark side mowers with scythes. A white pawn and bishop and a black bishop are missing.

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