On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Bas-Relief of a Sphinx
Not on view
This sphinx, wearing a peaked cap over its long, face-framing tresses, turns toward the viewer and extends its legs to the right. Sphinxes formed part of the repertoire of Armenian manuscript decoration by the eleventh century; and from the twelfth to the fourteenth century, they appear, along with other fantastic animals such as senmurvs, griffins, and sirens, with great frequency across Byzantine, Georgian, Mongol, Persian, and Seljuk art. In Greater Armenia, they are found on ceramics and bas-relief programs of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century architectural ensembles.
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