Dish

Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The image of a rhinoceros is derived from a woodcut of 1515 by Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), re-issued and copied many times in the ensuing centuries. An Indian rhinoceros belonging to King Manuel I of Portugal was the inspiration for the Dürer work. It was used for the decoration of a large dish in a Meissen porcelain service given to Britain's envoy to the Dresden court in 1745–52, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams. He sent the service to England. The rhinoceros dish was borrowed by the Chelsea Factory, with other pieces from the service, to be copied.

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