Pilaster (Tetramorph) from the Parapet of a Pulpit with Symbol of the Evangelists

Giovanni Pisano

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The trumpet-blowing angels, heralding the Last Judgment once flanked a relief of Christ as Judge (now in Berlin) in the center. The central pilaster is composed of a compact group with symbols of the evangelists: the angel of Matthew at center, the ox of Luke at his left, and the lion of Mark on the right. The pilaster supported an eagle lectern, similar to the adjacent one, for the reading of the Gospels. The eagle of John thus completed a representation known as a tetramorph. Probably executed by assistants after designs by the sculptor Giovanni Pisano, the pulpit was finished in 1310. It was dismantled in 1603, then reconstructed in the cathedral in 1926.

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