Cup with cover with a leather case

Franz Hubert Doreck

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Doreck arrived in Mannheim in 1821 from Brunn, Austria. A label in the traveling case of our cup states that he established a workshop as goldsmith and jeweler in the town's center, at "No. 5 / in der breiten Strasse." Here, the master took a simple Neoclassical barrel form and enlivened it with a playful contrast of decorative details and surface effects, such as the light-catching gadroons. The perfectly preserved cup may have been a present to a physician, as indicated by the applied reliefs of Hygeia, the Greek goddess of health, and her father, Asclepius, the god of medicine and healing. It is part of a long evolution of presentation cups from ancient times to the sport and racing trophies of today. The vessel's outline is distinctly German and conveys the elegance of inventions by Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841), the most influential architect and designer in early nineteenth-century Germany. Other features, however, notably the figural applications, the cone finial, and the leaf-frieze decoration, recall the French Empire style.

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