Four-leaf folding screen (Paravent)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Screens were very fashionable during the eighteenth-century as is illustrated in depictions of contemporary interiors. They were made in different sizes: tall multi-leaf folding screens (paravents) were placed in front of doorways to exclude drafts, and others, shorter ones, stood in front of the mantelpiece to shield from the heat of the fire (the latter were known as an écran de cheminée). The frames of the paravents could be covered with paper, leather, or fabric but could also be exposed, carved, and gilded as is the case with this neoclassical four-leaf screen with its stepped top. Its frame displays two continuous interwoven bands of openwork guilloche motifs between plain moldings as well as a border of ribbon-tied laurel leaves. The four corners of each panel are carved with a leaf motif. Such screens were often ordered as a set with seat furniture and a fire screen and would have been covered with the same fabric.

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