Panel with the Annunciation

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The castle at Ebreichsdorf, strategically positioned south of Vienna near the Hungarian border, served as a private residence for a member of the court. These windows from the glazing of the castle chapel were made by a large workshop in the employ of the royal dukes in Vienna. Elongated figures with heads often seen in profile, heavy masses of drapery, and an unusually rich range of colors distinguish the style of this court workshop. In contrast to the glass from Saint Leonhard in the central windows of this chapel, the figures here are placed in elaborate architectural settings composed of pinnacles and towers, imaginatively combined to create fanciful structures. These backgrounds link the individual scenes in a unified composition. Represented in this window are scenes from the infancy of Christ, including the Annunciation to the Virgin, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and the Adoration of the Magi with the Virgin Mary robed in royal purple but resting on a straw-filled mat. The tracery light above, representing the Sun and the Moon, is also from Ebreichsdorf. Having withstood the Mongol attacks of the thirteenth century only to be plundered by the Turks in 1683, Ebreichsdorf never returned to its medieval splendor. Except for one panel in Vienna, The Cloisters windows are all that survive of the Ebreichsdorf glass.

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