Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Torah Crown
Not on view
The animal called the re’em in Hebrew scripture was widely depicted as a unicorn in works of art created for the Jewish communities of Europe. A lion and a unicorn sometimes appear together in medieval Hebrew manuscripts and, later, on Torah shields. Here, they form one of several pairs of animals decorating a crown to be placed atop a rolled Torah scroll. They surely represent power, as articulated in Psalm 22. The strength of the unicorn is twice compared to God’s own power in the biblical Book of Numbers.
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