Icon with the Virgin and Child

Icon with the Virgin and Child

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This statuette, carefully cut from an ivory plaque, follows a widespread Byzantine image type called the Hodegetria, in which the Virgin supports the Christ Child with her left arm. It takes its name from an icon housed in the Hodegon Monastery in Constantinople.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Icon with the Virgin and ChildIcon with the Virgin and ChildIcon with the Virgin and ChildIcon with the Virgin and ChildIcon with the Virgin and Child

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.