Tympanum with the Three Temptations of Christ

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The semicircular tympanum over the door represents three summarily presented confrontations between Jesus and the Devil. They are meant to be read from right to left, leading to the happy conclusion that shows two angels bringing food to Jesus at the end of his temptations in the desert. The lintel, with angels supporting a medallion with the Lamb of God, was found in a mill in the village of Errondo in the 1920s. The tympanum is proportionately too small and may come from a different context. Nevertheless, the sculpture has been compared to the work of an artist active in Tuscany and along the Mediterranean shores of France. He is known as the Master of Cabestany after a village near the border of Spain where he worked.

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