Spit Bracket

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although Spanish, particularly Catalan, iron working had reached a level of great artistry by the late Middle Ages, many ordinary household objects continued to be wrought in the traditional and less refined fashion, as is the case with this support for a spit (once part of a pair). It is amusing, however, and its maker demonstrated great inventiveness in transforming the scaly fins of its arched back into rings through which the spit could be inserted at gradual intervals. If contemporary illustrations accurately reflect the normal operation of the roasting spit, it was the fate of some poor knave to sit by the fire, endlessly turning the spit, which was sometimes provided with a handle. By the fifteenth century, a number of more sophisticated mechanical devices had been devised. These included a series of disks set at an angle about the fire and driven in a circle by its heat, which, in turn, transmitted the rotary motion, through a series of cogged wheels, to the spit. This new “technology” did not, however, displace the traditional method of turning the spit by hand.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art