Wine cooler with A Marine Triumph of Bacchus

workshop of Guido Durantino

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During Renaissance feasts, cisterns were filled with cold water to chill fruit or bottles of wine. This example’s decoration with a seascape populated by revelers, aquatic creatures, and the youthful Bacchus (god of wine) in a chariot is well-suited to the cooler’s function. Sturdy paw feet kept the vessel stable when filled and relate to the leonine masks that form the handles.

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