Horse-Shaped Brooch

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This tiny brooch in the shape of a horse is one of a small group of central European animal pins that survive from the Iron Age. While some take the form of a stag or goat, all the pins are similar in that the animals are entirely three-dimensional, with the hind legs concealing the spring of the pin while the catch is attached to the forelegs. The horse remained an important shape for European brooches into the Celtic period, with numerous examples found in fifth-century graves. In prehistoric Europe, horses were difficult to obtain and expensive to maintain, thus making them important symbols of status and power. Perhaps brooches such as these were talismans, their power deriving from their representation of this highly valued and venerated animal.

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