Dr. Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide - All That Glitters Is Not Gold: The Art, Form, and Function of Gilt Bronze, 7 November 2024

Step back in time to 18th-century France at the annual Rosenberg Fête celebrating French painting and sculpture from the Michael L. Rosenberg Collection.

This year, Dr. Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide, the Henry R. Kravis Curator in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, presents All That Glitters Is Not Gold: The Art, Form, and Function of Gilt Bronze in the French 18th-Century Interior.

Many of the gold objects adorning sumptuous French interiors—from the Palace of Versailles to grand residences in Paris—are generally not made of gold but of gilt bronze. Both functional and highly decorative, gilt-bronze mounts and bronzes d'ameublement, such as light fixtures, fireplace fittings, and clocks, played a very important role in the French interior from the late 17th to the early 19th century. Always in keeping with the latest stylistic changes, gilt-bronze pieces were often designed by well-known artists and sculptors, such as Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier and Augustin Pajou, and manufactured by highly specialized craftsmen. A rigid guild system maintained the high standards of craftsmanship and regulated the process of gilt bronze manufacture.

Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide, along with Bertrand Rondot, was the organizer of the exhibition Visitors to Versailles: From Louis XIV to the French Revolution, held at The Met in 2018. She has lectured and written extensively about various aspects of the decorative arts. Her most recent book, How to Read European Decorative Arts, was published in 2023, and an installation of a selection of the artworks discussed in the book is currently on view at the museum.