A Look at the Revival Styles, 1800-1850 Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Queen consort of the French, Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily,
marble, 1841, by Baron François- Joseph Bosio

After viewing the Casper David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last week, we passed through the lavish Italian Baroque Sculpture and Decorative Arts, 1600-1750 Gallery to go see the complementary display of artwork in the Revival Styles, 1800-1850 Gallery. There, we saw an eclectic array of works evoking romantic nostalgia for the artistic achievements of centuries past. The revival styles arose principally in response to the widespread disillusionment caused by internecine warfare, economic hardship, nationalism, socialism, and the Industrial Revolution.

Ferdinando De' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany,
marble, ca. 1680-82, by Giovanni Battista Foggini
(Italian Baroque Sculpture and Decorative Arts Gallery)

Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul, hard-paste biscuit
porcelain, ca. 1800, Dihl & Guérhard Factory, Paris

Napoleon I in his coronation robes, a tapestry of wool, silk, and metal thread; gilded pine frame; woven in the high-warp workshop of Michel Henri Cozette at the Gobelins manufactory by several weavers (1808-11) after a design by François Gerard after a copy of a painting by Gerard (1805)