Dish

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A defining feature of kraak porcelain (so-called from the Dutch name for caracca, the Portuguese merchant ship) is the device of paneled decoration, seen here in the wide border of the dish, with its alternation of sunflowers and emblems. The central scene of ducks on a pond and the paneled motifs are among the numerous variants on the basic format of this extensive class of export porcelain. Examples similar to the Museum's dish, which is well made and painted with strong color and with care, if not with spirit, were found in the cargo of the Dutch ship Witte Leeuw, sunk in battle off Saint Helena in 1613.

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