Discover over 5,000 years of art from around the world at The Met. The beauty of The Met is to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects, here, every day, art comes alive in the Museum's galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing both new ideas and unexpected connections across time and cultures.
Along with engaging events and programs, The Met showcases magnificent works of art that include this upcoming exhibit:
The Silver Caesars: A Renaissance Mystery
This exhibition will be dedicated to the extraordinary set of 12 silver-gilt standing cups known collectively as the Aldobrandini Tazze. The Tazze will be reunited and displayed together for the first time since the mid-19th century, when the objects were disassembled and dispersed, their constituent parts misidentified and mismatched.
The exhibition will thus provides rare opportunity to appreciate one of the finest and most enigmatic monuments of 16th-century goldsmiths’ work. Properly reassembled, the Tazze bring to life the history of the first 12 Caesars, as recounted by the Roman historian Suetonius. Each stands over a foot high, and is comprised of a shallow footed dish surmounted by the figure of one of the Caesars; four scenes from Suetonius’s Life of the relevant ruler appear intricately wrought upon the concave interior of each dish.
Did You Know? - Numismatics is the study or collection of coins, paper currency, and medals.
The Silver Caesars will highlight the elegance and erudition of the Tazze, presenting them together with a small selection of relevant works in silver as well as in other media, including both ancient and Renaissance coins and medals, and Renaissance prints, books, and paintings. The show will also address the set’s later history by presenting 18th- and 19th-century works that the Tazze inspired.
A digital component will enable visitors to explore the Tazze and their fantastic antiquarian imagery in greater depth. In addition to offering new insights into the Tazze and their history, the exhibition will also explore the set’s famously mysterious reputation—engaging the visitor in tracing clues that may lead us towards a better understanding of this Renaissance masterpiece.
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By Melody Schubert
Photo Credits: The Met
