Fragment of a Border

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This fragment was originally part of the border of a stained-glass window, most likely from the clerestory of a church. It is composed of two different motifs-a palmette and a circle enclosing a rosette, a not uncommon combination in the 12th century, but increasingly rare in the 13th. The variety of color in this border, its lush vegetal forms, and the detail of painting relate it to stained-glass ornament produced around the end of the 12th century.

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