Mantelpiece

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Elaborately carved stone fireplaces, often decorated with profile heads inside wreaths, were a key feature of noble dwellings. As the winged helmet of the female figure in the right-hand wreath suggests, these depictions were generally idealizations rather than portraits of actual individuals. In the left-hand wreath is the head of a male figure. The remainder of the mantelpiece is carved with floral motifs and fantastic hybrid animals, including phoenixes, reptilian beasts, and sea creatures. The fireplace comes from the Trie-Pillavoine family’s manor house (called the manoir de Mornay-Villarceaux) in Omerville, Val-d’Oise. The coat of arms is a later addition.

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