Nude youth with a horn

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Yvonne Hackenbroch, in the Untermyer catalogue, quotes a letter of May 15, 1923, from Wilhelm von Bode to an unknown recipient, recommending the statuette as “a very good bronze of the late Quattrocento, unknown to me, rendering a motif of Antiquity in a fine, free manner.” In fairness, it should be noted that Hackenbroch’s marked copy is annotated with a question mark and the word “no.” Indeed, the license taken with this “kouros” is pitifully un-antique, to the point that it would be deceitful to offer it at auction. The surface is pitted and may also have been intentionally battered. -JDD

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