Brooch

Castellani

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The pale yellow-gold mount is a subtle foil for the head of medusa, whose grisly coiffure crawling with snakes is no less exquisitely configured in blond hues of the tesserated glass known as micromosaic. Luigi Podio was the chief micromosaic specialist in the Roman firm of Fortunato Pio Castellani. Matching ancient imagery with technologies also re-created from classical antiquity, Castellani served an avid international clientele.

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