The Virgin Mary and Five Standing Saints above Predella Panels

The Virgin Mary and Five Standing Saints above Predella Panels

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The three lancets on the left were originally placed over the three on the right in the north nave of the former Carmelite church at Boppard-am-Rhein near Koblenz. The slender, elongated figures enveloped in soft, trailing drapery and placed under soaring canopies suggest that the glass painter was well versed in the prevailing style of the Lower Rhineland, particularly that of Cologne. The marked preference for grisaille (shades of gray), both in drapery and flesh tones, further indicates a Cologne connection. At the left Saint Servatius, bishop of Tongres, holds a key presented to him by the pope in recognition of his fight against heresy, symbolized by the dragon he tramples. The antiheretical reference is echoed below by Saint Michael, who weighs souls and tramples evil. The Virgin appears in a robe adorned with representations of corn or wheat, an iconographic type stemming from litanies of the Virgin likening her to a field of grain nourishing humankind with the bread of life. Beneath her are the arms of the bishop of Liège, whose diocese may have donated the window. Below Saint Catherine are the arms of the coopers' guild of which she was patron saint. Saint Dorothy is shown accompanied by the Christ Child.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Virgin Mary and Five Standing Saints above Predella PanelsThe Virgin Mary and Five Standing Saints above Predella PanelsThe Virgin Mary and Five Standing Saints above Predella PanelsThe Virgin Mary and Five Standing Saints above Predella PanelsThe Virgin Mary and Five Standing Saints above Predella Panels

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.