Reliquary Shrine

Jean de Touyl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This sumptuous reliquary sets the Virgin and Child, accompanied by angels, within an elaborate architectural shrine. The arches, vaults, and sculptural decorations are of gilded silver; translucent enamel panels on the wings depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin and the Infancy of Christ evoke stained-glass windows. This example, one of only four such shrines to have survived, is recorded in the eighteenth-century inventories of the convent of the Poor Clares of the Order of Saint Francis at Buda (part of the modern city of Budapest), founded by Queen Elizabeth of Hungary in 1334.

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