All Essays
Medieval Art and The Cloisters
Orthodox Christian writers and artists reflect on works from the Africa & Byzantium exhibition.
Jaime Rall
May 3, 2024
As The Met increasingly explores cross-cultural connections, some icons, like this Virgin and Child, are significant for their explicit links between Christian communities thought to be very distanced from one another.
Helen C. Evans
December 21, 2023
With the support of curatorial fellows from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the department has catalogued its great collection of carvings in ivory and bone.
Nicole D. Pulichene and Scott Miller
March 1, 2022
The physical remains of saints, called relics, were believed to have the power of intercession as well as the capacity to heal.
Wendy Alpern Stein
September 1, 2020
From the fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth century, more books of hours were made than any other type of book.
Wendy Alpern Stein
June 1, 2017
Undoubtedly, the viewer’s first response upon opening the prayer beads and miniature altarpieces must have been a sense of wonder, soon followed by a keen desire to understand how and by whom these extraordinary and delightful objects were made.
Lisa Ellis and Pete Dandridge
April 1, 2017
During the medieval period, peoples of three faiths—Islam, Christianity, and Judaism—inhabited this land, undertaking sustained and intensive interactions that proved especially fruitful for the visual arts.
Julia Perratore
September 1, 2016
Under Ottonian rule, churches and monasteries produced magnificent illuminated manuscripts, imposing buildings, and sumptuous luxury objects intended for church interiors and treasuries.
Charles T. Little
May 1, 2016
Combined with other sumptuous materials such as wood, marble, and other decorative stones, these glass ornaments transformed the interiors of churches, mosques, palaces, and shrines.
Matthew Saba
April 1, 2016
Silver objects in an astonishing variety of shapes and sizes reflect the wide array of influences that artisans translated into a characteristic Hungarian/Transylvanian style.
Wolfram Koeppe
February 1, 2016