Wine bottle cooler (one of a pair)

Doccia Porcelain Manufactory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Because the addition of tin to the glaze created an opaque, milky white surface, the Doccia factory began using a tin glaze in the 1760s to mask the gray color of its hard-paste porcelain body. A tin glaze was applied to these wine coolers (see also 1985.384.1), providing an effective background for the palette of strong colors that has been employed. The stylized floral decoration is reminiscent of that found on Japanese porcelains of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and this form of painting was known at Doccia as a tulipano, although the large central flower may depict a peony rather than a tulip. These wine coolers are notable not only for the quality of the painted decoration but also for their exaggerated Rococo form. With its undulating and asymmetrical rim, and the asymmetrical molded shell decoration, the design embodies the principal characteristics of the Rococo style.

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