Plaque with an Italinate landscape

Frederick van Frijtom

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Trained as a painter, Van Frytom is foremost known today for his exquisite blue monochrome depictions of landscapes on faience plaques which were meant to be framed and hung on the wall. On this plaque, the mountinous landscape with travelers on a bridge is an imaginary or Italianate landscape. Not know to have ever left the country, Van Frytom may have derived inspiration for this scene from work by artists who traveled to Italy, such s the popular compositions by Nicolaes Berchem (1620–1683). Other compositions show typically Dutch scenes, such as the view of the river with village (50.211.40).

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