Vase with cover (vase B de 1780) (one of a pair)

Sèvres Manufactory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This decorative urn is painted with the Metamorphosis of Daphne on the front and with trophies of love on the reverse. Although made of porcelain, the decorative treatment of the lid, handles, foot and base is clearly inspired by the fashionable use of gilt bronze. The husk motifs and, especially, the bearded satyr masks of the scroll handles illustrate this quite well. They are gilded, partly burnished, and partly matted just like gilt-bronze mounts.

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