Canopy from the tomb of Philip III (the Bold) of France (1245-1285)

Jean d'Arras

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The royal abbey was the burial church for the kings and queens of France. This elaborate architectural canopy was originally an integral part of the tom of Philip III, son of Louis IX (Saint Louis). Commissioned by Philip IV (the Fair) (1268–1314) for the embalmed body of his father, who died in 1285 while on a military crusade against Aragon, master sculptor Jean d’Arras made the tomb in black and white marble. A new approach to a tomb representation is here achieved with the effigy placed against a black marble slab with another relatively new feature, a canopy over the deceased that may be intended to signify heaven. A masterpiece of micro-architecture the refined interior vaults also includes a masked man and grotesque animals on the exterior. The effigy is still in the abbey; both it and the canopy were removed in the wake of the French Revolution in 1796.

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