Kast

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Painted with large pendants of fruit in niches, this piece represents both a type of cupboard—and a form of decoration derived from Dutch prototypes. The ornament, executed in blue-gray, black, and white in a technique known as grisaille, simulates in paint the opulent Baroque carved pendants and festoons popular in the Netherlands during the second half of the seventeenth century on interior woodwork and furniture. Kasten were used for storage of linens, and the pomegranate and quince at the center of the door panels—symbols of fertility and marriage—suggest that this may have been a dowry piece.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art