Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Letter M with the Life of Saint Margaret
Not on view
The list of Margaret of Austria’s possessions in 1524 includes this remarkable letter M, carved on both sides with the tortured story of Saint Margaret. The narrative begins with the saint tending sheep in the countryside; a local governor, Olybrius, has seen her there and dispatched his servant to ask her name. In the adjacent roundel, she appears before him. On the reverse, the consequences of her rejection of him play out. Margaret, naked to the waist, is tied to a column and flogged as Olybrius covers his eyes. In the final roundel, he has ordered her beheading. At the bottom of the letter, Margaret subdues the Devil and vanquishes a dragon.
Margaret of Austria, daughter of Emperor Maximilian I and for many years Regent of the Netherlands, was among the most stalwart and powerful women of her age. Her life was closely entwined with that of her brother, Philip the Handsome, likely the owner of the Letter P, also in the exhibition.
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