Ceiling Tile with Fish

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

It was fashionable in Valencia to lay large tiles with bold designs across the rafters. The tiles were shaped in molds, covered with white slip, and then painted with manganese and iron oxides, yielding a black and a red color. The tiles were fired only once, hence their name socarrats, meaning scorched.

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