Locket

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This pendant once contained a small disk of wax, blessed by the pope during the Easter season and worn as a kind of amulet. The back shows a lamb, a symbol of Jesus, and is surrounded by a Latin inscription that translates: "Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us." Pregnant women sometimes wore such pendants for protection.

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