Personification of Africa

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During the Renaissance, Europeans recognized four continents. Each figure on these plaquettes (60.70.1-.4) personifies one of them. Europe’s clothing and attributes denote empire, military strength, and artistic accomplishments, whereas those of Africa, America, and Asia represent the precious goods that Europeans coveted. Far from accurate representations, this imagery reinforced the fiction of European superiority over other peoples and cultures.

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