The Lewknor Table Carpet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This ornamental table covering celebrates the aristocratic lineage of an English family, the Lewknors. It was made for an heiress, Constance Lewknor, who spared no expense for the carpet and the six matching cushions that originally accompanied it, apparently commissioning them from Flemish weavers working in Enghien (thirty miles southwest of Brussels), the recognized European center for such foliage-focused, or verdure, tapestries. The fruit in the border is a typical Enghien design, but the artfully naked boys and flower-strewn ground of red (Lancastrian) roses, white (Yorkist) roses, honeysuckle, and lilies suggest that an English cartoon, or preparatory drawing, for the central section was sent to Flanders.

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