Vase with love motifs

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Amorous symbols decorate this vessel. On one side, a graceful bird clutches a scroll inscribed with a romantic dedication: Non te posso lassar (I cannot leave you). This declaration of fidelity is paired, on the opposite side, with the image of an arrow piercing a heart from which flowers and acorns bloom. The broad span of the handles and the two-sided design suggest that it was intended more for display than for storage—possibly as a gift between lovers.

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