Allegory of Music

Allegory of Music

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

To create this panel three leather sheets decorated in the cuir bouilli technique, whereby the wet leather was manipulated and molded into the desired shape, were joined together. After the material was hardened and dry, the ornamental details were incised and punched into the surface. The decorated panel and the separate egg-and-dart frame, also made of leather and possibly original to the piece, were then mounted on an oak panel that was at one point installed as a door. The large elongated female figure clad in a richly draped costume and holding a viola da braccio is most likely Polyhymnia, the ancient Greek muse of sacred music, or the personification of music. The panel may have been part of an extensive wall decoration incorporating the Seven Liberal Arts, a typical Humanist scheme, for a modestly sized studiolo, or study. If so, this is the largest known Renaissance leather panel of its kind. The Mannerist scrollwork and grotesque figures recall the ornamental vocabulary of the "second school" of artisans at the Château de Fontainebleau in northern France, hired by King Henry IV (1553-1610). The sculptural creatures and masterfully conceived linear motifs, combined with the architectural texture of the composition, point to an experienced workshop.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.