Monumental vase

Ernest Chaplet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The massive scale of this vase represents a technical feat, even for a master like Chaplet. Firing porcelain this large posed many challenges, as evidenced by the firing crack and sloped profile where the clay sagged in the kiln. While many of his contemporaries worked almost exclusively in stoneware, Chaplet focused on porcelain, a material that required a much higher firing temperature.

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