Piece

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eighteenth-century Venetian silk weavers worked hard to retain their reputation, which they had enjoyed since the 1200s. Facing competition from recently established French and English counterparts, they developed a singular style responding to the colorful floral repeats of textiles imported from Iran and India. Used as both dress and furnishing fabrics, these new silks were collectively called “bizarre” upon their debut because of their unexpected elongations and patterning. Distinguished by virtuoso weaving, these works feature precious metalwrapped threads that twinkle with the shifting light of their setting. Their vogue was intense but short-lived, lasting only two decades (1705–25), the last great flowering of Venetian silk manufacture.

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