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18th-century French
Egyptian Art
domestic interiors known
One of the museum’s best-loved as the Wrightsman Rooms.
areas is the ancient Egyptian The Petrie European Sculpture
wing, which displays every one Court features French and
of its thousands of holdings – Italian sculpture in a beautiful
from the prehistoric period to garden setting reminiscent of
the 8th century AD. Objects Versailles in France.
range from the fragmented
jasper lips of a 15th-century BC Greek and Roman Art
queen to the massive
Temple of Dendur. Other A Roman sarcophagus from
amazing archaeological finds, Young Woman with a Water Pitcher Tarsus, donated in 1870, was
most of them originating from (c. 1662) by Johannes Vermeer the first work of art in the Met’s
museum-sponsored expeditions collections. It can still be seen in
undertaken early in the 20th Brueghel’s The Harvesters, the museum’s Greek and Roman
century, include sculptures several works by Rubens, galleries, along with breath-
of the notorious Queen Van Dyck, and Rembrandt, taking wall panels from a villa
Hatshepsut, who seized the and more Vermeers than any that was buried under the lava
Theban throne in the 16th other museum. The collection of Vesuvius in AD 79, Etruscan
century BC; 100 carved reliefs also has masterpieces by mirrors, Roman portrait busts,
of Amenhotep IV’s reign; and Spanish artists El Greco, exquisite objects in glass and
tomb figures such as the blue Velázquez, and Goya, and silver, and Greek vases. A
faïence hippo that has become by French artists Poussin monumental 7th- century BC
the museum’s mascot. and Watteau. Some of the statue of a youth shows the
finest Impressionist and Post- movement toward naturalism in
Impressionist canvases reside sculpture, and the Hellenistic
here: 34 Monets, including Marble Statue of an Old Market
Garden at Sainte-Adresse; 18 Woman demon strates how the
Cézannes; and several van Greeks had mastered realism by
Goghs, including Cypresses. the 2nd century BC.
European Sculpture
and Decorative Arts
In the Kravis wing and
Fragment of the adjacent galleries are
head of a pharoah’s queen works from the impressive
60,000-object collection
of European sculpture and
European Paintings decorative arts. The galleries
The heart of the museum is its include exquisite pieces such as
awe-inspiring collection of over Tullio Lombardo’s marble statue
3,000 European paintings. The of Adam; a bronze statuette of a
Italian works include Botticelli’s rearing horse, after a model by
Last Communion of St. Jerome Leonardo; and dozens of works
and Bronzino’s Portrait of a by Degas and Rodin. Period
Young Man. The Dutch and settings include the patio from
Flemish canvases are among a 16th-century Spanish castle An amphora by Exekias, showing
the world’s finest, with and a series of ornate a wedding (540 BC)
Egyptian Tomb Models Lehman Collection
In 1920, a Met researcher’s light illuminated a room, which had been What had been one of the the
closed for 2,000 years, in the tomb of the nobleman Meketre. Within finest private art collections in
were 24 tiny, perfect replicas of his daily life: his house and the world, that of investment
garden, fleet of ships, and herd of cattle. Meketre is there, banker Robert Lehman, came
too, on his boat, inhaling a lotus’s scent and to the museum in 1969. The
enjoying the music of his Lehman Wing is a dramatic
singer and harpist. The glass pyramid housing an
museum has 13 of these extraordinarily varied collection
delightful replicas.
rich in Old Masters and 19th-
century French paintings,
drawings, bronzes, Renaissance

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