Box with Equestrian Falconers

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hunting scenes decorate a number of surviving cylindrical boxes made in Sicily. This box, depicting a falcon hunt, shows richly attired men on horseback. The sport was favored by Holy Roman emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen (r. 1215–50), who wrote a definitive guide on the care and use of falcons in the hunt.

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