Hunting of Birds with a Hawk and a Bow (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries)

Hunting of Birds with a Hawk and a Bow (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This tapestry, with its rich colors, is packed with incidental details of animals, hunters, and shepherds. From a larger set of scenes that unfold within a hunting park, the main subject of this tapestry is bird hunting. Inside the enclosure, an archer aims for a bird perched high in a fruit tree. His companion to the left swings a lure above his head to retrieve the hawk that soars above the central tree. On the other side of the tree, a heron struggles in the clutches of a second hawk. A hunter uses a staff to vault the stream, his dog already ahead of him. A nearby shepherd has climbed the fence to watch the action.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hunting of Birds with a Hawk and a Bow (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries)Hunting of Birds with a Hawk and a Bow (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries)Hunting of Birds with a Hawk and a Bow (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries)Hunting of Birds with a Hawk and a Bow (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries)Hunting of Birds with a Hawk and a Bow (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries)

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.