Ornament

Ornament

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Though objects such as these are conventionally called “dress fasteners” and “sleeve fasteners,” their exact purpose is unknown. It has been proposed that the smaller “sleeve fastener” worked much like a modern cufflink: the disks would have been drawn through slits in the garment. The “dress fastener” may have been secured by loops sewn onto the garment.


Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.