Domestic

Items made for use within the home have often been objects of great beauty.

You can learn here about lavishly decorated dinner services made for the Renaissance Duchess Isabella D'Este, and the 18th century Russian Empress Catherine the Great, as well as humbler ceramics made in Staffordshire in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Look at magnificent items of furniture: cabinets made in Regency England and 17th century Antwerp, and a panel from a 15th century Florentine marriage chest decorated with the Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche.

And you can see fascinating and intimate depictions of domestic life ranging from Athens in the 5th century BC to 19th century Paris.