Circular Box (Pyxis) with the Women at Jesus' Tomb

Circular Box (Pyxis) with the Women at Jesus' Tomb

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Gospel of Luke (24:1-10) describes a group of women, among them Mary Magdalene, coming to the empty tomb of the risen Christ. Here three women stand in the orant, or prayer, pose. Two others, swinging censers, approach from either side of a domed building in which tied-back curtains reveal an altar, which may refer to Christ's tomb. Similar curtains separated the altar from the nave, or public area, in early churches in the eastern Mediterranean.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Circular Box (Pyxis) with the Women at Jesus' TombCircular Box (Pyxis) with the Women at Jesus' TombCircular Box (Pyxis) with the Women at Jesus' TombCircular Box (Pyxis) with the Women at Jesus' TombCircular Box (Pyxis) with the Women at Jesus' Tomb

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.