Triptych

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portable ivory shrines may have facilitated the transmission of style and composition throughout medieval Europe. This miniature example echoes larger altarpieces or tabernacles, such as those from the abbey church of Saint-Denis outside Paris and the cathedral at Pisa. Images of the Crucifixion and the Glorification of the Virgin are the central focus. The figures are flanked by the personifications Church and Synagogue (above) and by Saints Paul and Peter (below).

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