Jug with portraits of Emperor Charles V (1500–1558) and Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous (1503–1554), elector of Saxony

Paul Preuning

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Adorned with the likenesses of a Catholic emperor and Protestant elector, this detailed jug showcases the connections between common entertainments and Reformation politics. The dancing piper and drummer that flank Adam and Eve were symbols of revolt derived from anti-Catholic prints that circulated during the 1525 Peasants’ War, the largest uprising in Europe prior to the French Revolution of 1789. The painted arms of the Imhoff family of Nuremberg on the front were added later. This work was seized from Oscar Bondy (d. 1944) by Nazi officials in 1938 in Vienna and restituted to his widow, Elisabeth Bondy, in 1948.

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