Lion, from a Doorway

Lion, from a Doorway

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Alert and looking toward each other, both lions jealously protect their prey—a lamb in one case and a calf in the other—beneath massive paws. The pair originally supported columns that would have been attached to their backs and probably flanked a small doorway of a church. By the mid-eighteenth century, they were placed at the door of a chapel near the village of Quattro Castella, near Reggio Emilia.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.