John Barnard

John Michael Rysbrack

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Flemish-born Rysbrack was a dominant force in developing the psychologically penetrating portraiture of Augustan England. A log of his busts, begun by George Vertue in 1732 and continued until 1744, lists a bust of "Dr. Bernard, Bp Rapho," as well as a "Son of Mr. Bernard." The fate of the former bust is not known, but the Museum's bust is securely identifiable with the latter. William Barnard was consecrated bishop of Raphoe in Northern Ireland in 1744, succeeded to the bishopric of Derry in 1746–47, and died in 1768. The names of two sons, both clergymen, are recorded, but that of John Barnard is not. The boy is fashionably outfitted in Hussar costume, but there is a grave and wasted aspect to his intelligent features. Conceivably Rysbrack was asked to perpetuate the memory of a beloved child who died at about the age of eight.

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