Decorative Arts
See Also: Design Arts, Feng Shui
Museums
NGA: Decorative Arts
An introduction to decorative arts with an in-depth study of Art Nouveau, and several online tours of objects including Italian cabinet galleries, porcelains and ceramics from different regions, Medieval metalwork and enamels, and more.
The Met: American Decorative Arts
Read an introduction to the collection and view around 49 selected highlights from the collection online.
LACMA: Decorative Arts and Design
Browse selected works from the collections online including contemporary ceramics and glass, furniture, jewelry, lamps, textiles wood, and more.
MFA: Splendor and Elegance
European decorative arts and drawings from the Horace Wood Brock Collection, an online tour from the Museum of Fine Art, Boston.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Museum of decorative arts and design with a searchable database of over 30,000 works and 50,000 images from the collections including furniture, ceramics, glass, fashion, paintings, metalwork, prints, photographs, textiles, and sculpture.
Louvre Museum: Decorative Arts
Browse selected works online by theme or period including furniture, tapestries, jewelry, ivories, ceramics, and bronzes from the Middle Ages to the mid 19th century.
The Getty: Decorative Objects and Vases
View decorative objects in the online collections including bottles and pots, vases, drinking and dining vessels, and ritual vessels.
Musee d'Orsay: Decorative Arts
View a selection of works online including sculpture, furniture, and other objects.
The Art Institute of Chicago
View the collection of European decorative arts online including furniture, porcelain, stoneware, earthenware, and metalwork.
Yale University Art Gallery
A selection of images featuring American decorative arts including objects in silver, glass, wood, porcelain, and textiles.
The Frick: Gilt Bronzes
View images of andirons, clocks, lighting fixtures, and mounted porcelains in the permanent collection of the Frick Museum.
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna
Collection of sculpture and decorative arts including works in gold, bronze, stone, and wood, plus automatons, clocks, curiosities, marvels, exotica, and tapestries.
MAM: Decorative
View select highlights online from the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Brooklyn Museum: Decorative
View over 2,000 decorative objects in the online collections of the Brooklyn Museum.
Clocks and Watches
Breguet and the Louvre, an Apogee of European Watchmaking
A Louvre Museum mini-site featuring watches, clocks, measuring instruments, and related documents that explore the work of Breguet.
The Frick: Clocks
View images of table clocks, mantel clocks and longcase clocks from the sixteenth through the eighteenth century, plus around 14 images of pocket watches.
European Clocks and Watches in the Palace Museum
A virtual exhibition featuring British, French, and Swiss clocks and watches, presented by The Palace Museum, Beijing.
Resources
Decorative Arts and Material Culture
A digital library of resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.