Two-Handled Jar with Stag

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A manuscript from the early 1400s gives a recipe for a "blue [pigment] raised in the Florentine manner," a likely reference to the striking cobalt-blue paint found on this jar and many others associated with Florentine potters. Sometimes called "relief blue," the paint is applied so thickly as to create a raised surface.

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