Magnificent architectural settings and period rooms provide the backdrop for masterpieces of European art from the early sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. On display are important paintings, sculpture, furniture, and decorative arts, beginning with objects illustrating the strong Renaissance interest in the ancient world. These include fine collections of Italian maiolica ceramics and bronze sculptures; paintings by such masters as Titian and Agnolo Bronzino; and a choir screen from the château of Pagny in Burgundy, France, paired with an elaborate sculpted wood altarpiece from Antwerp.
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Highlights from the Collections |
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| Explore objects on view in the European Art 1500-1850 galleries >> | ||||||
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Mannerist and Baroque masterpieces, as well as fine examples of seventeenth-century Dutch painting, are particular strengths of the collections and include works of art by Nicolas Poussin, Peter Paul Rubens, and Jacob van Ruisdael. Spanish art is represented by great paintings and lively decorated ceramics. Furniture, porcelains, metalwork, and tapestries in the delicate Rococo style provide further highlights, among them Sèvres porcelains and silverwares fashioned for the French court. Among the period rooms are a spectacular Neoclassical drawing room designed by Robert Adam for a great London townhouse and a grand salon from the château of Draveil near Paris. Tastes for the exotic are demonstrated by rare imports from China and Japan, as well as European imitations produced in reaction to foreign wares.
The diversity of artistic styles that flourished in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are represented in works by Thomas Gainsborough, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Eugène Delacroix. Sculpture includes Jean-Antoine Houdon’s vivid marble bust of Benjamin Franklin; while a gallery devoted to portrait miniatures on ivory, copper, and enamel, as well as superbly crafted likenesses modeled in wax, are indicative of the period's interest in the individual.
Please note, many of the objects on view in these galleries rotate periodically.
