Wine cooler with Charles V’s Victory at Mühlberg

Enea Vico

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The painted scene on the interior of this cooler depicts an important sixteenth-century event—the 1547 victory of the Catholic forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V over his Protestant enemies. A Latin inscription identifies the scene, which was adapted from a popular print. Coolers were not originally intended to be hung on a wall, but this work’s foot was removed in later centuries when collectors preferred the vertical display of pottery.

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