Diptych with the Nativity and the Mass of Saint Gregory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Among the more than 130 miniature boxwood carvings that have survived, this is the only diptych. While the subjects are not unusual, the inscriptions are particularly complex, drawing on the writings of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and other theologians. By tradition, it is said that this piece belonged to Queen Christina of Spain in the nineteenth century. It may reflect her Habsburg ancestors’ taste for miniature boxwood carvings from the Netherlands, a territory they ruled at the beginning of the sixteenth century.

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