Casket or Portable Altar with the Crucifixion, Standing Saints, and Christ in Majesty with Symbols of the Evangelists

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Several related caskets functioned as cross bases with sockets for accommodating a crucifix. This example may have originally served the same purpose, but it was perhaps later adapted as a portable altar.

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