Steelyard Weight with a Bust of a Byzantine Empress and a Hook

Steelyard Weight with a Bust of a Byzantine Empress and a Hook

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Steelyard weights often took the shape of busts of Byzantine empresses. This unusually detailed image may depict an empress of the Theodosian dynasty, which ruled from 379 to 450. The weight—itself about five pounds, or seven Byzantine litrae—would have been used for heavier goods.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Steelyard Weight with a Bust of a Byzantine Empress and a HookSteelyard Weight with a Bust of a Byzantine Empress and a HookSteelyard Weight with a Bust of a Byzantine Empress and a HookSteelyard Weight with a Bust of a Byzantine Empress and a HookSteelyard Weight with a Bust of a Byzantine Empress and a Hook

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.