October from a set of The Months of Lucas

Master of the Months of Lucas

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This tapestry was part of a set of twelve celebrating courtly pastimes, each dedicated to a month of the year. Here, the ripened fruits and vintage traditionally associated with autumn are evoked by a lady and gentleman sampling wine and a boy feasting on grapes. In the middle ground, a pair of lovers meet under a simple trellised arbor, beautifed by abundant trusses of ripe fruit. Behind them, vintners press grapes and barrel wine, while in the distance, dancing peasants celebrate the end of the harvest. April, from the same series, is on display nearby. Though woven in eighteenth-century Paris, these hangings were designed after a sixteenth-century Netherlandish tapestry set (now lost) in the French royal collection. The resulting works winningly combine a Renaissance sensibility in subject matter, compositional style, and clothing fashions with a lush Rococo border, a rainbow palette, and virtuosi weaving techniques more typical of 1730s France.

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