Yellow-Green Hexagonal Glass Bottle with a Stylite Saint

Yellow-Green Hexagonal Glass Bottle with a Stylite Saint

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The stylite saints depicted on tall glass vessels made in Syria were men who renounced the world and lived atop pillars (styloi). Most renowned was Saint Symeon the Stylite the Elder (389–459), whose pillar on the mountain of Qal‘at Sem‘an, near Antioch, became the center of a large pilgrimage complex. Pilgrims collected dirt from the base of his column.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Yellow-Green Hexagonal Glass Bottle with a Stylite SaintYellow-Green Hexagonal Glass Bottle with a Stylite SaintYellow-Green Hexagonal Glass Bottle with a Stylite SaintYellow-Green Hexagonal Glass Bottle with a Stylite SaintYellow-Green Hexagonal Glass Bottle with a Stylite Saint

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.