Spandrel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This carving is one of the numerous surviving fragments from a great carved stone screen that once enclosed the choir in the third church built at Cluny, a sanctuary rivaled in size only by Saint Peter’s in Rome. The monastery of Cluny, one of the most powerful in medieval Europe, was richly endowed by the kings of Castile and León as well as other European rulers. It was sustained by a network of hundreds of dependencies. The monastic buildings of Cluny—covering some 25 acres were acquired by the town in the wake of the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century and were almost completely destroyed. Elements from the building were adapted for reuse by the municipality.

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