Pendant with Virgin and Child

Pendant with Virgin and Child

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The design of this pendant served as the insignia for the Schwanenorden, or Order of the Swan, founded in 1443 by Friedrich II, elector of Brandenburg. Several contemporary portraits show similar pendants worn on chains around the neck with a large pearl or other ornament suspended from a loop. The image of the Virgin and Child on the crescent moon, inspired by Revelation, is similar in composition to woodcuts by Hans Baldung Grien, a protégé of Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.