Development of a Bottle in Space
1913, cast 1950
Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
15 1/2 × 23 3/4 × 12 1/2 in. (39.4 × 60.3 × 31.8 cm)
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Modern and Contemporary Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Lydia Winston Malbin, 1989
Accession Number
1990.38.2
Art Historical Context
Umberto Boccioni's *Development of a Bottle in* (1913, cast 1950) stands as a cornerstone of Futism, the revolutionary Italian art movement that celebrated speed, technology, and the dynamism of modern life. Created during Futurism's peak, this bronze sculpture embodies Boccioni's radical vision to capture not just an object, but its *evolution* through time and space. Rejecting static representation, Boccioni fused the bottle's form with its surrounding environment, suggesting motion and simultaneity in a single, fluid mass. Cast in bronze—a durable medium that preserves the original plaster...
About the Artist
Umberto Boccioni · 1882–1916
Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916) was an Italian painter and sculptor who became the leading artist and principal theorist of the Futurist movement. Born in Reggio Calabria, he studied in Rome under the Divisionist painter Giacomo Balla and was deeply influenced by Post-Impressionism before encountering the ideas of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, whose 1909 Futurist Manifesto catalyzed Boccioni's artistic ...