Prayer Bead with the Crucifixion and Jesus before Pilate

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This carving of exquisite complexity was surely intended for prayer during Holy Week, when the full drama of the final days of Jesus’ life are traced. In the lower half of the bead, Pontius Pilate washes his hands of responsibility for the fate of Jesus. In a master stroke, the carver has made the stream of water stand free of the background. As if to remind us to look carefully, he shows a figure near the front poring over a text with the aid of magnifying glasses. Is the artist also hinting that magnification facilitated his own work? The carving warrants a careful look, for at the back Jesus is led away and then flogged.

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