Incense burner (koro)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The gift of the Hans Syz Collection endows the Museum with nearly three hundred examples of European and Asian ceramics meticulously acquired by Dr. Syz to chart the migration of models and patterns from East to West. Documenting a continuous process of influence and adaptation, these pieces provide a discriminating review of the nuances of stylistic change resulting from three centuries of trade. Among the most telling comparisons is that of a Japanese incense burner (koro) and its Viennese counterpart. The Japanese model, finely enameled in a palette of light coral, green, and blue in the kakiemon style of late-seventeenth-century Japanese porcelain, is known to have been exported to Europe, as Augustus the Strong, elector of Saxony, acquired an example in 1723. While no records are known to survive from Du Paquier's factory, it is likely that the koro reached Vienna, as it had Dresden, through the intermediacy of a merchant. In Vienna Du Paquier boldly converted the Japanese form to a European one with new proportions, Baroque mask feet, European pastoral scenes.

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