Vase with cover (vase à bâtons rompus)

Sèvres Manufactory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This vase is notable for the bold zigzag-and-diamond ornament above the foot, the highly architectural handles, and the draped oak garlands linking the handles to the vase. These elements reflect a growing awareness at Sèvres of the Neoclassical style, which was gaining popularity in France in the 1760s. Curiously, the painted decoration showing soldiers in an encampment, like that found on other early Neoclassical vases from Sèvres, ignores the new stylistic influence.

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