Putto on a Dolphin

Gérard van Opstal

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Collectors in French courtly circles prized van Opstal's reworking in ivory of themes he employed in large-scale architectural reliefs carved for palaces and private mansions in Paris. The land- and sea-based mythological scenes in which he specialized were clearly inspired by his fellow Fleming Rubens, who was, in turn, inspired by antique Roman sarcophagi. Van Opstal's ivories are often pierced and evidently meant to be mounted against a dark background. This example, perhaps by a follower, may have been intended for an ebony cabinet.

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