Rape of Proserpina

Doccia Porcelain Manufactory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the 1740s Carlo Ginori, the founder of the porcelain factory at Doccia, acquired a number of sculptural models in wax, terracotta, and plaster made by some of the leading Florentine baroque sculptors. The challenge and reward for the porcelain modelers at the Ginori factory was to overcome the technical difficulties of this fragile new medium and to retain the dynamism and balance of the original models. This group, based on a bronze by Foggini, depicts Pluto stepping into the flames as he carries the struggling Proserpina off to the underworld.

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