Plaque with Agnus Dei on a Cross between Emblems of the Four Evangelists

Plaque with Agnus Dei on a Cross between Emblems of the Four Evangelists

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Represented here by their characteristic attributes are the four evangelists surrounding the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei), as derived from the vision of John in the Book of Revelation (4:6–7): an angel (Matthew), a winged lion (Mark), a winged ox (Luke), and an eagle (John). Originally this plaque would have covered a deluxe binding of a now-lost Gospel book. The stylization of the symbols and the type of interlaced foliate cross find parallels in manuscript illumination produced within the southern Italian region of Benevento, including at the famed Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plaque with Agnus Dei on a Cross between Emblems of the Four EvangelistsPlaque with Agnus Dei on a Cross between Emblems of the Four EvangelistsPlaque with Agnus Dei on a Cross between Emblems of the Four EvangelistsPlaque with Agnus Dei on a Cross between Emblems of the Four EvangelistsPlaque with Agnus Dei on a Cross between Emblems of the Four Evangelists

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.