Console table from Croome Court, Worcestershire

Robert Adam

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Architect Robert Adam’s favorite carver was Sefferin Alken, a Danish craftsman working in London. Alken strictly followed Adam’s meticulous drawings during his employment, then left after four years to work for a rival designer. Here, we see Adam’s delicate ornament and Alken’s precise carving at their lightest and most kinetic. The painted surfaces evoke the ancient plasterwork that had been newly excavated from Pompeii and Herculaneum, while the marble-veneered tabletop demonstrates an innovation that probably reduced the table’s weight but increased its expense.

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