Devotional Diptych with the Nativity and the Adoration

Devotional Diptych with the Nativity and the Adoration

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The scenes on this diptych find an echo in the pages of a printed Book of Hours (acc. no. 20.53.3). It is perhaps not surprising that the same workshop should produce the designs used for both the book and the diptych: each is a small object, in black and white, meant to be held in the hands during private prayer. But the same workshop also produced cartoons for large-scale, colorful works of art, including stained glass, and The Cloisters’ Unicorn Tapestries.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Devotional Diptych with the Nativity and the AdorationDevotional Diptych with the Nativity and the AdorationDevotional Diptych with the Nativity and the AdorationDevotional Diptych with the Nativity and the AdorationDevotional Diptych with the Nativity and the Adoration

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.