Sculpture & Decorative Arts
European sculpture, furniture, ceramics, glass, and metalwork from the medieval period through the 19th century — including French decorative arts and Italian Renaissance bronzes.
Applied brilliance: craft, politics, and the courtly interior.
n pre-modern Europe, royal and aristocratic patrons invested far greater sums into decorative arts and furniture than into panel painting. Inlaid cabinets, tapestries, porcelain, and bronzes were calculated assertions of state power, technical dominance, and dynastic wealth designed to dictate the choreography of court life.
The collection showcases this exacting standard: André-Charles Boulle’s complex tortoiseshell and brass marquetry, monumental Sèvres porcelain services, and Italian Renaissance bronzes designed for tactile handling. These objects reveal how material luxury operated as a visual language of political legitimacy.
