Panther Seizing a Stag

Antoine-Louis Barye

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The unrestrained violence of animals evoked a powerful response from the Romantics who saw them as embodiments of instinct as opposed to reason. In animal combat they saw the most elemental struggle of all, the struggle for survival. Géricault and Delacroix were painters who explored this facet of French Romanticism most deeply; Bayre was the quintessential Romantic sculptor.

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