Virgin and Child

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Used for daily devotions to the Virgin and Child such figures may have been placed on an altar within a tabernacle. The apparent wear on the carving may have been caused by repeated touching and kissing. It may come from a Franciscan community, the Minori Osservanti in Foglino or perhaps Assisi.

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