Adonis

Antonio Corradini

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This marble was once displayed alongside a companion sculpture of a reclining Venus (now lost) in the Sagredo family’s Venetian palace. Eighteenth-century inventories identify the subject as the mythological huntsman Adonis, beloved of the goddess Venus. Although he is often depicted with fatal wounds after being killed by a boar, this reclining figure appears to be in a peaceful slumber, instead seemingly recalling the related myth of the sleeping shepherd Endymion, whose youthful beauty seduced Diana. The body’s languid pose and highly polished flesh form a sensuous display of undulating marble whose fluid curves and tactile surfaces would have complemented the palace’s interior.

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