Dish with tiger and bamboo

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Chinese-inspired pairing of tiger and bamboo has a long history in the Japanese decorative arts. Connotations of strength and flexibility made it a particularly popular motif for large-scale paintings for sliding wall panels in the castles of powerful feudal lords during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

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