Panel from a Diptych

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This openwork panel is unusual in many aspects, leaving its place and time of manufacture ambiguous. The panel is pierced entirely through, a method of carving typical of Europe during the later fourteenth and earlier fifteenth centuries. However, the presence of hinges is out of keeping with the normal construction techniques of pierced ivories, suggesting that it might be a later imitation of medieval ivory carving or a very early venture into this type of carving.

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