The Lamentation

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The highly emotional, wrenching expressions on the faces of the standing figures in this shrine are heavily influenced by the work of the South Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden (ca. 1399–1464). Indeed, it is possible the Spanish workshop that created this work included at least one Netherlandish artist, or perhaps the workshop had access to a sketchbook that included elements taken from Rogier's paintings. The shrine was originally the center section of an altarpiece from the ruined Benedictine monastery of Sopetrán, northeast of Madrid. The two panels with four painted scenes that formed the wings of the retable are now in the Prado, Madrid.

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