Pyx Fragments with the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

As containers for the Eucharistic host, pyxides were essential accoutrements of the early Christian and medieval liturgy. Christ’s miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes is carved in low relief, reminding viewers of the biblical precedent for the Christian sacrament of communion (Mark 8:1-6). The remaining four of the original twelve Apostles of Jesus stride forward with the substance of Christ’s miracle held under veiled hands. While two men face to their left as though processing around the back side of the pyx (now lost), the other two figures face one another across the two fragments. A similar sixth-century pyx in the Met (acc. no. 17.190.34a,b) shows that the complete object would have featured the apostles processing toward a central figure of Christ from the left and the right.

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