Belt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The celebrated Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) tells of a silver belt stolen from a virtuous Genoese woman that was offered for sale in the market at Acre, a principal arrival point for European Christian pilgrims. The story bears witness to the lucrative and lively commerce between Italian merchant cities and the Holy Land. This belt, which combines typically European motifs like that of a woman spinning with images of men in Persian inspired costumes, boasts of the same wide world that Boccaccio took for granted.

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