Reliquary casket

Lorenzo Ghiberti

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The strongly architectural nature of the design suggests that it may have been based on a late antique sarcophagus. The inscription (on the two end panels) may be translated, "Domina Mattea, wife of Renzo, had this work made for the sake of her soul and those of her family, 1446."

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