Icon with Christ Pantepotes and the Chorus of Saints

Icon with Christ Pantepotes and the Chorus of Saints

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This complex icon composition contains more than one hundred tiny figures. In the center sits Christ, identified as Overseer of All. Twelve scenes from Christ’s life surround the central image. Panels with “choruses” of saints frame the icon, each showing Christ Emmanuel blessing a different group of saints, named in inscriptions.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Icon with Christ Pantepotes and the Chorus of SaintsIcon with Christ Pantepotes and the Chorus of SaintsIcon with Christ Pantepotes and the Chorus of SaintsIcon with Christ Pantepotes and the Chorus of SaintsIcon with Christ Pantepotes and the Chorus of Saints

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.