Watch

Wilhelm Peffenhauser

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Peffenhauser, or Pepfenhauser, appears in the records of the Stadtarchiv Augsburg as a casemaker as well as a watchmaker. The case may, therefore, have been made at least in part by the clockmaker, perhaps incorporating an earlier cameo. The man in the cameo traditionally was believed to be a sixteenth-century member of the Fugger family of Augsburg, but that is not borne out by surviving Fugger portraits. The cameo may instead be part of the "Dürer revival" of the early seventeenth century. The Italian Renaissance brought with it a wholehearted embrace of classical antiquity throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Emulation of ancient cameos played a large part. Carvers invested ancient myths with increasingly refined compositions and techniques, paying close attention to the latest archaeological discoveries. Demand for Italian carvers took them to all the courts of Europe. Milan in particular developed a taste for cameos with wondrous atmospheric effects.

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