Francesco Bocchetta

Alessandro Vittoria (Alessandro Vittoria di Vigilio della Volpa)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The leading Venetian sculptor during the second half of the sixteenth century, Alessandro Vittoria was praised by contemporaries for his pioneering portrait busts. This marble was once installed over a tomb in the now deconsecrated church and monastery of Santa Caterina, Venice. The sitter, possibly the monastery’s chaplain, wears the clothes of a Venetian gentleman, with a five-petal flower fibula, or pin, on his left shoulder and a diagonal band across his chest. Though the work is unquestionably Vittoria’s invention, certain components, including the beard and the drapery, may have been carried out by assistants under his direction.

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