Door lock and key

Door lock and key

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Designed for a double door, this splendid object is as decorative as it is practical. Long thought to be French, this lock was probably made in Vienna by an Austrian locksmith for one of the rooms of Palais Paar, an impressive Baroque residence that was renovated between 1765 and 1772 by the French-born architect Isidor Canevale (active 1760-1788). Paneling in a late Rococo style, assembled from two separate rooms of Palais Paar, is installed in the Wrightsman Galleries of French Decorative Art.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.