Plate (from the "Vues Diverses" service)

Sèvres Manufactory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The painted scene illustrates a combat near the ruined tombs of Baalbek in the mountains of Syria. The scene was adapted by Le Bel from a drawing by the peripatetic Louis-Francois Cassas (1756–1827), whose travels took him from northern Europe to Istria, Constantinople, Asia Minor, and Egypt. Cassas spent nearly a month in Baalbek in 1785, and his views were etched and engraved for his "Voyage Pittoresque de la Syrie," published in 1799. Our plate comes from a set of "vues diverses "and is one of only two in the series to depict a scene outside France. The service was begun during the Napoleonic period but was completed in 1816, when it was delivered to Louis XVIII.

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