Plate (assiette octogone or assiette platte) from the "Service Arabesque"

Sèvres Manufactory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This plate is from a remarkable service that reflected the most up-to-date Neoclassicism of the late eighteenth century. The shapes and the decoration were commissioned from the architect Louis le Masson who was instructed that the service should represent "the most rigorous antique taste." The need for new forms and decorative schemes for the service delayed its production, and it remained incomplete at the outbreak of the Revolution. Less than twenty pieces from the service Arabesque are known today.

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