Pietra dura table top

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This magnificent hardstone (pietra dura) tabletop is notable for the geometric design and central alabaster oval flanked by roundels of marble (breccia di Tivoli). These features are typical of Rome in the years around 1600 and distinguish the tabletop from Florentine examples. Four lapis lazuli bolts hold in place the strapwork cartouches that recall forged iron. The severity of the inner decoration seems to translate jewelry designs from contemporary pattern books while the border of wild animals, blossoms emitting seeds like strings of pearls, leafy scrollwork and floral sprays includes motifs derived from ancient Roman mosaics.

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