Clock (pendule à console)

Clock (pendule à console)

Louis Mÿnüel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

French cabinetmaker Charles Cressent broke Paris guild restrictions by making his own bronze fittings for furniture and clocks instead of going to bronze founders. Among the bronzes seized from his workshop in 1723 were figures of Leda and the Swan to be “placed below the dial” and a sphinx to be “used at the foot of a clock.” These decorative mounts are similar to those on this clock case, which also features a bronze Cupid holding a scythe, symbolizing Love conquering Time.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Clock (pendule à console)Clock (pendule à console)Clock (pendule à console)Clock (pendule à console)Clock (pendule à console)

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.