Silver Dish

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This silver dish, found with the patera in this case (47.100.29), was worked on a lathe to create the decorative concentric circles on its interior. Its precise function is unclear. Objects of this type have appeared among sixth-century church vessels in the Byzantine east, where they were used as patens to carry the Eucharist. A similar example is depicted on a fourth-century sarcophagus from Rome, which shows the dish being used for hand-washing.

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