Modernism was not the first movement to cast a shadow on ornament and adornment, though it
was the most effective one. This exhibition contrasts austere works of art with ornate ones,
encouraging viewers to examine their own responses and to consider them in the light of different
stylistic imperatives of the past. Drawn from the Museum's collection of European sculpture and decorative arts, the exhibition follows the theme from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century.
Images, from left to right: Sèvres Manufactory (French, 1740–present). Service, Coffee and Tea (Déjeuner Chinois Reticulé), 1855–61. Hard-paste porcelain. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Helen Boehm, in memory of her late husband, Edward Marshall Boehm, 1969 (69.193.1–.11); Josef Hoffmann (Austrian, 1870–1956). Tea Service, ca. 1910. Silver, amethyst, carnelian, and ebony. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky Fund, 2000 (2000.278.1-.9)
