Plate with imaginary portrait of the tragic poet Moschion

Plate with imaginary portrait of the tragic poet Moschion

Sèvres Manufactory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The decorators at Sèvres painted cameos in a way that convincingly captures the stones' translucency. This plate was one of seventy-two in the service iconographique grec. One set went to Napoleon's uncle Cardinal Fesch, another to a member of Pope Pius VII's entourage. Images of cameos proliferated on objects of all sorts during the age of Neoclassicism. Some were copies, some inventions, but all owed their origins to Greco-Roman antiquity. By implication, these adaptations underscored the owner's erudition and sober good taste. The owner might be rich or humble. Pottery such as Wedgwood's, for example, made enough use of cameos to satisfy all comers.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate with imaginary portrait of the tragic poet MoschionPlate with imaginary portrait of the tragic poet MoschionPlate with imaginary portrait of the tragic poet MoschionPlate with imaginary portrait of the tragic poet MoschionPlate with imaginary portrait of the tragic poet Moschion

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.