Belt

Simon Henek

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Belts were showpieces, and though not worn every day, they might suffer over time due to the fragility of the textiles and delicate goldsmith work on them. Thus six of the rosettes in this example are nineteenth-century replacements. It is not clear if the silk velvet fabric with its gold-wrapped threads is original. When new, the ground of the buckles was covered with blue enamel to set off the pierced architectural arcade motifs with incorporated figural reliefs. Literature Tihamér Gyárfás. A brassai ötvösség története. Brassó, 1912, p. 101, no. 136. Gold Boxes, Objects of Vertu and European Silver. Sale cat., Sotheby’s, London, July 6, 1981, p. 42, no. 162. Judit H. Kolba. Hungarian Silver: The Nicolas M. Salgo Collection. London, 1996, p. 37, no. 13. References Elemér Kőszeghy. Magyarországi ötvösjegyek a középkortól 1867-ig / Merkzeichen der Goldschmiede Ungarns vom Mittelalter bis 1867. Budapest, 1936, no. 186 [maker’s mark]. [Wolfram Koeppe 2015]

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