
Sugar bowl and spoons
Bendix Gijsen
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This sugar bowl is notable for its striking originality. The globe-shaped bowl is opened by pressing the compass finial, which causes the top half of the globe to retract. The columnar base is fitted with slots to hold spoons. The prevailing Neoclassical taste is reflected in the swags of grapevines and Mercury heads that encircle the bottom of the globe as well as in the truncated column base. However, the absence of unnecessary ornamentation and the sense of monumentality create an unusually "modern" object.
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.