Monstrance

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This monstrance is constructed largely of silver sheets that have been decorated with elaborate pierced work, a technique favored by Spanish goldsmiths in the early sixteenth century. The enamel and niello medallions represent a lioness breathing life into its cubs and a pelican feeding its fledglings with the blood of its breast. Both subjects allude to the redemption of humankind through Christ's sacrifice, suggesting that the vessel originally displayed a Eucharistic wafer.

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