Renaissance Furniture, Tapestries, Silver, Porcelain, Sculpture before 1700, Arms and Armor, Dutch Tiles, Modern and Contemporary Design

Beginning with purchases and gifts acquired from the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, the Museum’s collection of European decorative arts and sculpture today encompasses objects from the medieval era to the present. Romanesque and Gothic sculptures join suites of tapestries by Rubens and Coypel, Italian and French Renaissance furniture, and outstanding examples of Italian maiolica, English silver, and Sèvres porcelain. Grand architectural spaces and period rooms, from a French medieval cloister to a superbly decorated English 18th-century drawing room by Robert Adam, provide further context for the display of individual works of art. The department is responsible for the Carl Otto Kretzschmar von Kienbusch Collection, one of the finest collections of arms and armor in this hemisphere, as well as a large and comprehensive collection of Dutch tiles, given by Mrs. Francis P. Garvan in 1979. Also among this department’s celebrated holdings are the distinguished collection of early 19th-century French furniture assembled by Henry McIlhenny and a comprehensive collection of modern and contemporary design objects from Europe and elsewhere.

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