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ESDA at the Met

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Discover 500 years of art history with the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts (ESDA) at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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To mark the Jewish High Holidays this year we want to share with you an exciting new acquisition to our collection! This silver ritual lamp which was manufactured by the Swedish silversmith Johannes Schiotling in 1771.

These chandelier-style lamps were suspended from the ceiling and used to illuminate Jewish homes during the Sabbath and religious festivals. In accordance with Sabbath and holiday observance, the lamps were lit before sunset, as kindling a flame is prohibited once the holy day begins. In eighteenth-century European Jewish households, these lamps were both practical sources of light and significant ritual objects that played an important role in domestic religious life.

Examples of these ritual lamps were illustrated in manuscripts and early printed books, which were widely circulated throughout Europe. In Bernard Picart’s Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, first published in Amsterdam in 1723, engravings illustrate these lamps being used in the home during the Jewish holidays. These treasured heirlooms are rooted in religious identity and are an essential cultural artifact of Jewish life in Europe.

They are identifiable by five or six parts which include a crown, a baluster knob, a seven–pointed star–shaped basin for wicks and oil, a drip pan, and a weighted pendant at the bottom, sometimes in the shape of an acorn. The form of a Jewish ritual hanging lamp originated in the Medieval period and was first crafted in bronze. In 1762 Schiotling established a workshop in Amsterdam and was commissioned to make this lamp for an unknown Jewish patron. He was among the leading practitioners of domestic and ritual silver in the Rococo and Neoclassical style. Approximately fifteen silver Dutch Sabbath and festival lamps survive from before WWII, and this is the only known example by Johannes Schiotling. This is the first of its type to enter the museum’s collection.

Wishing you and your family a Shana Tova filled with light and peace!

🎨 Johannes Schiotling. Sabbath lamp. 1771. Dutch, Amsterdam. Silver: chased. Purchase, Manda and Albert Kalimian Gift, in honor of Sabrina and Daniel Kalimian, 2026, 2026.334a–f by @met_esda

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Roll out the carpet, literally!

In 1668, Louis XIV commissioned the Savonnerie manufactory to create a series of 92 monumental carpets for the Louvre’s Grande Galerie, one of the most ambitious textile projects of all time.

Now, for the first time in The Met’s history, three Savonnerie carpets from this extraordinary commission are on view together.

Hear @met_esda curator Wolf Burchard share how the “Music” carpet was installed in the galleries.

“A King’s Carpet: Louis XIV and the Savonnerie” is now on view in Galleries 524–528. by @met_esda

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We are preparing the 17th century French carpet, “Grande Galerie carpet no. 11 (Music, reweave)” from Savonnerie Manufactory for the upcoming, “A King’s Carpet: Louis XIV and the Savonnerie,” opening September 8th. Due to the carpet’s large size (almost 30 feet long by 16 feet wide), a temporary set up in the public courtyard is required for us to attach a header and Velcro hanging system. We have a tight turn-around so please stop by today for this rare opportunity to see textile conservation in action or visit the exhibition to see this incredible carpet on display!

Exhibition on view from September 8, 2026–March 5, 2028, Galleries 524-528 @met_esda

“Grande Galerie carpet no. 11 (Music, reweave),” Savonnerie Manufactory, After designs by Charles Le Brun, Delivered between 1668 and 1677, Paris, 358 x 181 in. Gift of Rogers, 1952. acc#52.118 by @met_esda

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NOW ON VIEW – Rediscovering Della Robbia at The Met brings together for the first time twelve sculptures by the Della Robbia family from The Met collections.

About 1440, Luca della Robbia invented a technique for making glazed terracotta reliefs and statuary. His descendants brilliantly carried on his new art.

The Met is home to the most important collection of Della Robbia sculptures in the United States, but many of them were out of sight for decades. Revived through conservation and re-attributed through fresh research, these sculptures are joined in Gallery 521 by a promised and recent gift from the Dick Wolf Collection and loans from a private collection.

🎨 Virgin and Child (detail). Andrea della Robbia (Italian, 1435–1525). Italian, Florence, ca. 1475. Glazed terracotta. Gift of Edith and Herbert Lehman Foundation Inc., 1969 (69.113)

🎨 Virgin and Child. Andrea della Robbia (Italian, 1435–1525). Italian, Florence, ca. 1475. Glazed terracotta. Gift of Edith and Herbert Lehman Foundation Inc., 1969 (69.113)

🎨 Prudence. Andrea della Robbia (Italian, 1435–1525). Italian, Florence, ca. 1475. Glazed terracotta. Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1921 (21.116)

🎨 Saint Michael the Archangel. Andrea della Robbia (Italian, 1435–1525). Italian, Florence, ca. 1475. Glazed terracotta. Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1960 (60.127.2) by @met_esda

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2 months ago

This Saturday, July 4, marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the founding document of the United States of America.

Created to commemorate the achievements of the Revolutionary War, this printed textile was intended to be turned into bed hangings or cushion covers. Likely made shortly after Franklin’s death in 1790, the textile shows personifications of America and Liberty leading the elder statesman toward a "temple of fame," as George Washington drives a chariot preceded by trumpeting Indigenous figures. A "liberty tree" at left displays a torn copy of the Stamp Act, the British law that spurred the nation’s quest for independence.

See this remarkable textile in Revolution!, currently on view in the American Wing, Gallery 758, through September 7.

🎨 Apotheosis of Franklin. ca.1790. British. Cotton and linen. Bequest of Charles Allen Munn, 1924 (24.109.104) by @met_esda

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This bronze depicts a young boy kneeling on a rocky outcrop, clenching a wriggling fish in his hands. Produced by the sculptor Vincenzo Gemito at the dawn of his career, the work exhibits its maker’s keen observations of ordinary life in the sun-drenched city of Naples, where impoverished youth were often seen catching their next meal in the bay. An orphaned child himself, Gemito captures his subject with great sensitivity, focusing particular attention on the boy’s tender expression. Further drawing inspiration from the ancient bronze statues of adolescents he studied at the Archaeological Museum in Naples, Gemito transforms the everyday subject of the fisherboy into a timeless meditation on youth.

The work was made in 1876, just one year prior to the sculptor’s presentation of a larger fisherboy, now at the Bargello, at the Paris Salon. Gemito’s success at the Salon encouraged him to continue in the genre, but none of his later compositions of fisherboys, which cater to the period’s French taste for eroticized images of scugnizzo – a nickname given to children in Naples – would rival the first two versions.

The bronze is sometimes referred to as the Marvasi Fisherboy in reference to its patron, Diomede Marvasi, an early champion of Gemito and the mayor of Naples. While many reproductions of the sculpture were made after Gemito’s return to Naples from Paris, none surpass the Met’s cast, which is the very sculpture that Marvasi commissioned. In its remarkable surface detail and colorful patina the work bears all the hallmarks of a superlative first cast of the lost-wax method.

Come see this new acquisition on view in Gallery 556!

🎨The Marvasi Fisherboy. Vincenzo Gemito (1852-1929). 1876. Purchase, The Isaacson-Draper Fund and Friends of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Gift, 2024 (2024.308) by @met_esda

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Costume Art — now open in The Met’s Condé M. Nast Galleries — pairs garments with specific artwork to show the relationship between these pieces. That means our team of objects conservators and mount makers were more involved in this year’s show than ever !

Here, conservator Jack Soultanian removes cementitious encrustations from Rafaello Monti’s marble Veiled Woman, signed and dated 1854. Swipe right to see the work paired with one of the most iconic looks from this year’s red carpet!
@metmuseum
#costumeart #italianart #stonesculpture #metgala2026 #artconservation taken in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York by @met_esda

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Last month, ESDA lost a beloved, long-time valued member of the department, Clare Vincent.

Clare joined ESDA in 1962, fulfilling her longtime wish to work for The Met and worked in several different areas. She wrote extensively on various subjects such as sculpture by Auguste Rodin and Edgar Degas, "Renaissance" jewelry, and pietre dure.

Clare will be primarily remembered for her love of clocks, watches, and scientific instruments as well as her research on Limoges enamels. Towards the end of her distinguished career, she published the beautiful volume of European Clocks and Watches in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2015), written together with her husband Jan Hendrik Leopold and Elizabeth Sullivan. In 2016, she retired from ESDA and was appointed Curator Emerita.

Clare was a warm, bright colleague with a great sense of humor and will be missed.

🎨Astronomical table clock, second quarter 17th century, Case: gilded brass and gilded copper; Dials: gilded brass and silver; Movement: brass, gilded brass, and steel, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917(17.190.747)

🎨Edgar Degas, The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, Cast by A. A. Hébrard, 1922 (cast), 2018 (tutu), Partially tinted bronze, cotton tarlatan, silk satin, and wood, H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 (29.100.370)

🎨Pierre Reymond, The Wedding Feast of Cupid and Psyche, 1558, Painted enamel on copper, partly gilt, Purchase, Rogers Fund; Gifts of Irwin Untermyer, George Blumenthal, and Ogden Mills, by exchange; Bequest of Fannie F. Einstein, in memory of Emanuel Einstein, by exchange; and Edward Ablat, the Shubert Foundation, Inc., and Irving M. Gruber Gifts, 1984 (1984.195) by @met_esda

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Step into the world of Raphael! 🎨

Discover the genius of one of the Italian Renaissance’s most celebrated artists, whose work blended beauty, emotion, and intellect in ways that shaped art history forever.

"Raphael: Sublime Poetry" is the first major U.S. exhibition dedicated to his work. From Urbino to Florence to Rome, explore his rise alongside legends like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, and experience the full scope of his brilliance.

📣 Now open! See Raphael's art like never before through 230+ works ranging from the artist’s greatest masterpieces and rarely seen treasures on view.
———
Thanks to presenting sponsor Morgan Stanley (@morgan.stanley). by @met_esda

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To mark the Purim holiday, which begins today, we wanted to share a recent acquisition and the first Scroll of Esther for the Met’s collection!

Purim commemorates Queen Esther, the Persian Queen, and her role in saving the Jewish people from annihilation in 480 BCE. This communal and joyful holiday celebrates bravery, resolve, and faith.

Esther scroll cases rarely are made from gold, and the inclusion of figurative scenes makes it particularly extraordinary. Three bas-relief scenes depict passages from the Book of Esther: Esther before King Ahasuerus (8:3); Haman leading Mordecai, dressed in the King’s robes on horseback (6:11); and the hanging of Haman (7:8-10). Below the narrative scenes are four upturned winged cherubim attached to an elongated handle with a Janus-head at the bottom. The central body can be opened to reveal the parchment scroll which extends over 8 feet.

This scroll was once part of the Sassoon collection, a family of Baghdadi origin, with roots in Bombay, Shanghai, and London. The collection was assembled over the course of a century and passed down among family members. In the nineteenth-century, Flora Gubbay Sassoon inherited the scroll. She was an acute businesswoman, scholar, and philanthropist, who challenged the traditional expectations placed on women at the turn of the century.

This case was exhibited at the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall in 1887 and has not been on view to the public since. Visit Gallery 503 to see it in person! Chag Sameach!

🎨Esther Scroll and Case. Italian. 18th century. Gold, white metal; ink on parchment. Gift of Jane and Stuart Weitzman, in honor of Oscar L. Tang and Agnes Hsu-Tang, 2025 (2025.335a, b) by @met_esda

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7 months ago

New installation alert 🚨

In the 1840s and ’50s, British and French antiquarians digging in Iraq revealed ancient Assyrian palaces at sites such as Nimrud (ancient Kalhu) and Nineveh, associated with cities and kings named in the Bible. The carved stone reliefs found lining the palace walls were unlike anything previously known and caused a sensation in Britain, where their excavation was also represented as an imperial achievement. Many of the sculptures were shipped to London and received much attention in newspapers and popular books. The Sydenham Crystal Palace, opened in 1854, included a brightly colored “Nineveh Court,” and the ancient sculptures inspired designs incorporating Assyrian imagery in metalwork, ceramics, and jewelry.

The objects on view here are part of the Henrietta and Christopher McCall Collection of Assyrian revival decorative arts and works on paper, acquired by The Met in 2023. More pieces from this collection will appear in the museum’s redesigned Galleries for the Art of Ancient West Asia, which will open in summer 2027. Swipe to take a closer look at a selection of the objects on view and see them in person in the British Galleries (Gallery 516)!

📸View of installation in gallery 516.

British. Jugs with Assyrian-inspired decoration (2023.657, 2023.658, 2023.659), 1851-1860. Porcelain.

British. Human-headed winged bull and lion (2023.655a, b), 1850-1900. Gilt bronze.

French. Urn with Assyrian scenes (2023.651), 1851. Slate, bronze.

British. Brooch with Assyrian human-headed winged bull (2023.691), ca. 1873. Gold, enamel, glass.

British. Jug with Assyrian-inspired decoration (2023.662), 1851-1860. Stoneware.

British. Earrings with Assyrian human-headed winged bulls (2023.680a, b), ca. 1870-1875. Gold.

British. Brooch with Assyrian winged human-headed bull (2023.679), ca. 1870-1875. Gold, glass.

British. Bracelet with Assyrian-inspired design (2023.695), ca. 1870-1880. Gold.

British. Human- headed winged lion and bull (2023.664a, b), 1893. Unglazed porcelain (Parian ware). taken in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York by @met_esda

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Love is in the air and it smells divine! 💕

This Valentine’s Day, ESDA is highlighting two eighteenth century British scent bottles from our collection. Featuring a pair of doves, a symbol long associated with love, these bottles would likely have been given as romantic gifts. The doves hold a ribbon in their beaks that is inscribed with the grammatically incorrect French phrase "prenes les pour modele" intended to mean "take them [the doves] as a model."

Small enough to carry in a pocket or attach to a belt, scent bottles (or smelling bottles, as they were referred to in the eighteenth century) held perfumes that could be sniffed throughout the day, either directly from the bottle or when applied to a handkerchief.

We hope these provide inspiration for any last-minute gifts you might give your valentine tomorrow. Happy Valentine’s Day! 💘

🎨Scent bottle with two doves, ca. 1765–70, enamel on copper Gift of Mrs. James M. Kellogg, in memory of her husband, 2023 (2023.441.15)

🎨Scent bottle with two doves, ca. 1765–1770, enamel on copper, Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1964 (64.101.809a, b) by @met_esda

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