Panel with a Griffin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This commanding image of a griffin with its head turned and its wing flexed is an exceptionally fine example of monumental stone carving of the Late Byzantine, or Palaiologan, era. The panel, worked in low relief, resembles an elaborate Byzantine silk in its arrangement of the creature within a roundel. Small Greek crosses at the midpoint of the border on all four sides identify it as having been made for Christian use. Christians of this era still considered the mythical griffins to be guardian figures, often of the dead, and symbols of power and authority, thanks in part to their legendary role in the life of Alexander the Great. Possibly, the panel was once part of a tomb similar to those known from northern Greece that were carved in a style influential in Serbia and the Balkans. On tombs griffins may have meant both to protect the people buried within and to symbolize their royal lineage. The fleurs-de-lis on the griffin's shoulder and haunch typify the era's complex cultural interplay, as similar motifs are found in contemporary Islamic and Crusader depictions of animals.

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