Manuscript Illumination with Four Saints in an Initial O, from a Choir Book

Manuscript Illumination with Four Saints in an Initial O, from a Choir Book

Master of the Murano Gradual

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The large white headdresses known as miters identify the two elderly figures in the foreground as abbots, since they wear the white robes of the Camaldolese order. Their colorful copes are trimmed with a pattern inspired by Arabic lettering.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Manuscript Illumination with Four Saints in an Initial O, from a Choir BookManuscript Illumination with Four Saints in an Initial O, from a Choir BookManuscript Illumination with Four Saints in an Initial O, from a Choir BookManuscript Illumination with Four Saints in an Initial O, from a Choir BookManuscript Illumination with Four Saints in an Initial O, from a Choir Book

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.