Grisaille Panels

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In stained-glass painting, the term grisaille refers to an ornamental nonfigurative design painted in black line on colorless glass. Grisaille windows developed after a prohibition on the use of colored glass was issued by the Cistercian Order in 1134. By the thirteenth century, limited amounts of colored glass were introduced into grisaille designs. Here, a latticework of blue glass overlays one of the most intricate and complex patterns found in grisaille windows of the period. The design of this window finds its closest parallels in Normandy in the 1270s. The top and bottom panels and the red border are modern. The right sides of the four central panels have been expanded.

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