Column

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This column (with its pair acc. no. 21.172.1), along with some twenty others, are all that remain of the “Golden Church” of La Daurade. The church, which derived its name from the Latin word meaning “gilded” (deaurata), was famous for the gold mosaics that covered the niches and walls of its seven-sided sanctuary. Rows of elegant columns framing the niches contributed to its lavish interior. Founded about 399 as a convent, the church had been converted to a monastery by the 800s, before being destroyed in 1761.

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