Standing cup with cover

Possibly by workshop of Lorenz Zick

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 520

The technique of forming objects on a lath, or turning, reached a high degree of complexity in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, when French, Italian, and Central European workshops produced paper-thin hollowed-out shapes from single blocks of ivory. Clerics and noblemen embraced turning as a hobby. Among the rulers who collected masterpieces of turning for their Kunstkammern and practiced the art themselves were the Holy Roman Emperors Maximilian II (r. 1564–76), Rudolf II (r. 1576–1612), and Ferdinand III (r. 1619–37). The eccentric form of one of these cups exemplifies Mannerist taste in Central Europe, though the most challenging aspect of its creation was concocting the lacy hollows that form the stem and spire.

Standing cup with cover, Possibly by workshop of Lorenz Zick (1594–1666), Ivory, German, Nuremberg

Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.