God the Father

Ignaz Günther

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This relief undoubtedly surmounted a large altarpiece towards which God's downward gaze and gesture were directed. The coat of white paint, imitating marble or stucco, may reflect official demands of greater restraint in church decoration (for example, the Bavarian electoral decree of October 1770). Elements of the composition are derived from the mature works of the 1760s by Ignaz Günther, the great Bavarian Rococo sculptor.

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