Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Cabinet on Stand
José Manuel de la Cerda Mexico
Not on view
The presence in Mexico of imported lacquerware from China and Japan inspired local adaptations by artists such as José Manuel de la Cerda, whose lacquerwork was celebrated in his lifetime his as finer and more lustrous than Chinese wares. For this Anglo-Dutch-style desk, de la Cerda’s most ambitious surviving work, he used a pre-Hispanic lacquer technique and drew on a range of decorative and figural motifs freely borrowed from both European and Asian sources.
The Hispanic Society Museum and Library was founded in 1904 by Archer Milton Huntington (1870–1955) with the objective of establishing a free public museum and research library for the study of the art and culture of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America. Addressing nearly every aspect of culture in Spain as well as Portugal, Latin America, and the Philippines, the collection of books, manuscripts, and works of art is unparalleled outside of Spain in its scope and quality. Paintings by El Greco, Velázquez, Goya, and Sorolla; masterworks of sculpture; and outstanding examples from all fields of the decorative arts offer visitors a comprehensive history of the arts of the Iberian Peninsula. The Hispanic Society Museum and Library is currently closed for renovation. For more information, visit hispanicsociety.org.
