Coffret

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This casket, like many late medieval secular objects, is decorated with scenes of courtship or romances based on medieval concepts of courtly love. In this example, a lover offers his lady his heart while she combs his hair and gives him, in return, her girdle as a token of her affection. The earliest cogent expression of courtly love is probably to be found in the twelfth-century troubadour songs of southern France. The code of courtly love, formalized in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, was observed, in some places, will into the fifteenth century. A popular author, Christine de Pisan (circa 1360-1430), expressed the sentiments of her day: "For it is well known there is no joy on earth that is so great as that of the lover and the beloved." Typical in the Middle ages, the line between religious and secular subject matter is fine, for on the inside of the cover of this casket is a representation of the Virgin and Child.

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