As part of the project to publish the entire collection of the National Gallery of Art, this is the first volume devoted to sculpture and the decorative arts. Most of the works cataloged in this volume came from a family of benefactors of principal importance in the creation of the Gallery, the Wideners. Other works cataloged here were collected by Samuel H. Kress and the foundation directed by his brother Rush Kress, who were also founding benefactors of the Gallery. The decorative arts in this volume include medieval metalwork, stained glass, French Renaissance enamels, European ceramics, jewels in the Renaissance style, and a few other late medieval and Renaissance decorative arts of diverse types and materials. The single largest group in the present volume is Renaissance maiolica, of which the Wideners collected 38 examples.