Portrait of Countess Elizaveta Romanovna Vorontsova (1739–1792)

Imperial Russian Tapestry Manufactory, Saint Petersburg

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1716, Tzar Peter the Great founded a tapestry-weaving workshop in his new capital city, Saint Petersburg. Although many of the tapestries made in the workshop took Old Master paintings by the likes of Rembrandt and van Dyck as their models, some were more unusual. Exceptional is this portrait of the scandalous mistress of Tzar Peter III. Only aged twenty-three at the time of weaving, the soft blush of her cheeks, and sumptuous materials of her gown have been admirably captured by the Gobelins-trained weaver.

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