Length of velvet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

While Lyons was the undisputed center of the silk-weaving industry during the eighteenth century, Genoa provided much of the high-quality velvet for both furnishings and fashion. A specialty was polychrome-velvet weaving, as in this fabric, which possibly was intended to be used for an elegant wide-skirted mantua, or gown. Although the pattern repeat of stylized and seminaturalistic flowers is relatively small, it appears more complex, as it is rendered with seven different colors, a feat of technical virtuosity. The individual motifs are further modeled by juxtaposing cut and uncut ("ciselé") pile, which reflect light differently. This mutable effect is more dramatic when the fabric is in movement, as one's perception of the colors changes dramatically depending on whether the fabric is vertical or horizontal, flat or draped.

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