Enthroned Virgin and Child

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The sculpture is created by pressing linen reinforced with glue into shallow molds and mounting the figure on a wood backing and adding paint and gilding. This work seems to be a unique surviving example of this technique. The Virgin is seated upon a throne displaying lion heads, a reference to the Throne of Solomon. Significantly, a number of votive offerings are incorporated into the interior of the figure: a pearl rosary and bobbin lace and other fabrics. The figure is said to have come from the convent of Santa Chiara in Vaglia, Tuscany, indicating that it was probably made for a Clarissan convent, a sister order following the Franciscan rule.

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