Doves of Pliny

Giacomo Raffaelli

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This roundel depicting the Doves of Pliny is typical of the micromosaics made in Rome in large quantities in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They were intended for visitors to Italy who wished to bring home a souvenir of their visit to the country whose ancient civilization continued to inspire the rest of Europe and America. Such an object may have served as the model for the decoartion on the Vienna cup in this case.

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