Krüg

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Krüge were used to serve wine and were filled directly from the barrel or from a large container standing in a cistern of cool water, as is frequently shown in genre paintings. This krüg probably belonged to an Augustinian monastery near Frankfurt. The painted decoration refers to a story about Saint Augustine. Once, while walking beside the sea, wrestling with the mystery of the Trinity, the saint came upon a child spooning water into a bucket. When told it is impossible to convey all the sea into the bucket, the child responded that it is equally impossible to comprehend the Trinity.

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