Virgin and Child

Virgin and Child

Alexander of Abingdon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Discovered only in the 1980s in Newbury (Berkshire), this imposing sculpture is closely related to the figural decoration on the famed wayside crosses erected along the route of the funeral procession of Queen Eleanor of Castile, the beloved wife of Edward I, who died in 1290. Alexander of Abingdon, the leading sculptor of the court, created some of them.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.