Pair of vases

Frederick Sonne

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

These vases are decorated with scenes based on marble reliefs of 1825 by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844) that are on the facade of the Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen. On .1, Minerva, goddess of wisdom, places a butterfly, image of the soul, upon the head of a man of clay formed by Prometheus; on .2, Nemesis, goddess of retributive justice, reads the records of a man's like to Jupiter, seated on his tribunal and holding a thunderbolt.

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