The sumptuous illuminated manuscripts of Early Renaissance Florence have traditionally been overshadowed by the better-known monumental arts of the period. The Metropolitan Museum of Art seeks to redress the imbalance by mounting an exhibition of Florentine miniatures produced between 1300 and 1450 from collections in Europe and the United States. A selective group of bound manuscripts and single leaves from disassembled books is joined with panel paintings and works in perishable media—such as drawings, embroideries, and reverse painting on glass—created by the same masters. Some of the important books whose pages have been disseminated are here reconstructed for the first time since they were cut apart. During the incredible efflorescence of the visual arts in Florence of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, some artists turned their hands equally to various media, manuscript painting among them. In the fourteenth century these included one of the most mysterious and engaging personalities of early Renaissance Italian painting, the Master of the Codex of Saint George, as well as such artists as Pacino di Bonaguida, the Maestro Dadesco, the Master of the Dominican Effigies, Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, and Don Simone Camaldolese. Toward the close of the fourteenth century, there emerged in the same Camaldolese ambiance where Don Silvestro and Don Simone flourished a major artist of international stature, Lorenzo Monaco. Don Lorenzo eventually left the monastery to operate a secular workshop that became an important force in the early fifteenth century Florentine art world, producing lavish illuminated manuscripts in addition to frescoes, altarpieces, and numerous picture for a growing domestic market. One of Don Lorenzo's greatest legacies may have been the training of Fra Angelico, a Dominican monk, and a painter of surpassing genius, who is in large part responsible for the evolution of a truly Renaissance style in the visual arts. The innovative naturalism of Angelico and his followers effectively brings to a close the great age of illumination in Early Renaissance Florence. By way of introduction to the objects themselves are three essays. The first, by Laurence B. Kanter, presents an overview of Florentine illumination between 1300 and 1450 and thumbnail sketches of the artists featured in this volume. The second essay, by Barbara Drake Boehm, focuses on the types of books illuminators helped to create. As most of them were liturgical, her contribution limns for the modern reader the medieval religious ceremonies in which the manuscripts were utilized. Carl Brandon Strehlke here publishes important new material about Fra Angelico's early years and patrons, the result of the author's recent archival research in Florence. In addition to the three essays elucidating different aspects of the topic, this volume contains 55 entries on works of art, accompanied by 296 illustrations, 120 of them in color. Each entry includes a descriptive commentary, a provenance, and references. A bibliography and an index appear as well.

Since antiquity, religious beliefs and practices have inspired many of the world’s greatest works of art. These masterworks have, in turn, fueled the imaginations of fashion designers in the 20th and 21st centuries, yielding some of the most innovative creations in the history of fashion. Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination explores fashion’s complex and often controversial relationship with Catholicism by examining the role of spirituality and religion in contemporary culture. This two-volume publication connects significant religious art and artifacts to their sartorial expressions. One volume features images of rarely seen objects from the Vatican —ecclesiastical garments and accessories—while the other focuses on fashions by designers such as Cristobal Balenciaga, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Madame Grès, Christian Lacroix, Karl Lagerfeld, Jeanne Lanvin, Claire McCardell, Thierry Mugler, Elsa Schiaparelli, and Gianni Versace. Essays by art historians and leading religious authorities provide perspective on how dress manifests—or subverts—Catholic values and ideology.

Limoges enamels, the richest surviving corpus of medieval metalwork, were renowned throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. Yet today they are little known outside academic circles. The present volume, published in conjunction with the exhibition Enamels of Limoges, 1100–1350, brings to deserved public attention nearly two hundred of the most important and representative examples from the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée du Louvre, the great church treasuries of France, and other sources. Early in the twelfth century, goldsmiths at the Benedictine Abbey of Conques in the hills of the ancient province of Rouergue began to create enamels whose jewel-like colors and rich, golden surfaces belied their fabrication from base copper. Within a generation, this technique was established in the area of the Limousin itself. By the 1160s the enamels created at Limoges, known as opus lemovicense, were a hallmark of the region. They were to be found not only in the Limousin and the neighboring region of the Auvergne but also in Paris, in monasteries along the pilgrims' road to Santiago de Compostela, at the Vatican, and in the cathedrals of Scandinavia. The works of Limoges were created for important ecclesiastical and royal patrons. The wealth of enameling preserved from the Treasury of the abbey of Grandmont, just outside Limoges, is due chiefly to the Plantagenet patronage of Henry II and his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Enamels created during their reign resonate with the elegant style of the court, and the dramatic history of Henry's monarchy is evoked by such works as the reliquary of Saint Thomas Becket. Ecclesiastical patrons such as Archbishop Absalon of Lund, Cardinal Guala Bicchieri, and, above all, Pope Innocent III were key to the dissemination of Limoges work throughout the churches of Europe. While few of the artists who created the enamels that have come down to us are known by name, the works of several—Master Alpais, Garnerius, and Aymeric Chretien—are here juxtaposed with related pieces, some of them demonstrably from the same atelier. Clearly, the ability of the goldsmiths of Limoges to adapt their work to meet the demands of a varied clientele was an essential element in their success. Victorines and Franciscans joined Benedictines among the patrons of Limoges. Before the middle of the thirteenth century, the goldsmiths of Limoges began to create tomb sculptures of gilt copper with enameled surrounds, the most famous being the paired images of John and Blanche of France, children of Saint Louis. Objects decorated with enameled coats of arms came into prominence at about the same time.

What is distinctive about medieval drawings? How do they differ from Renaissance drawings, which have shaped our definition and perception of the form? Why were drawings so often chosen to illustrate manuscripts and how did they evolve throughout the period? Who were the artists responsible for them? These and other questions are addressed in this volume, which accompanies a major exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that is the first to consider the accomplishments of the medieval draftsman in depth. The subject is explored in text that will enlighten the general reader and scholar alike. Melanie Holcomb's essay is devoted to the history, aesthetics, and uses of medieval drawings, subjects developed further by Dr. Holcomb and thirteen other experts in forty-nine entries that treat the works in the exhibition. The essay takes a chronological tour through the Western Middle Ages, examining drawings made in settings as diverse as ninth-century monastic scriptoria and the fourteenth-century French court. The authors discuss the pervasive and persistent taste for drawing in the Middle Ages, focusing on several areas at moments when drawing was a particularly favored medium, such as Carolingian Europe, Anglo-Saxon England, and twelfth-century Regensburg and Salzburg. The draftsmen responsible for these drawings were primarily anonymous, yet a surprising number of medieval artists are known by name. Among them the authors consider Saint Dunstan, the tenth-century abbot and archbishop of Canterbury as well as an artist; Matthew Paris, who contributed both texts and page after page of illustrations to the Chronica Majora during the thirteenth century; the strange fourteenth-century cleric Opicinis, who, upon recovering from a grave and mysterious illness, began to draw the visions he believed were sent by God. Drawings appear with surprising frequency in the Middle Ages, and were considered fitting for the embellishment of important and lavish books as well as for humbler tomes. The drawings were accomplished with a broad array of inventive techniques, as artists explored the possibilities of line, often playing it off painted and gilded elements. Drawings maintained a symbiotic relationship with writing, were valued for their clarity, and sometimes for their seeming attestation of direct observation. Medieval drawings exist in a wide variety of forms, occurring in bound manuscripts as well as in independent sheets, examples of which are included in this volume: drawings à l'antique, evoking classical style; illustrations of classical texts; bestiaries with pictures of real and imaginary, familiar and exotic animals; maps that highlight man-made and natural wonders; cosmological diagrams with representations of the zodiac; charts of many kinds; legal documents; model books with sketches; exegetical treatises in graphic form; and scientific illustration. It is through scrutiny of these drawings in all their rich variety that we gain insight into the creative and intellectual concerns of medieval artists, patrons, and readers.

This special issue of the Bulletin reflects on some of the crises gripping our world in the present moment, including the catastrophic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the continuing tragedy of racial injustice. Voices from The Metropolitan Museum of Art present their personal perspectives on issues and challenges facing us all while connecting these difficult times to art, artists, and the Museum’s history. Conceived and written during the Museum’s unprecedented closure, this compelling publication reflects on art’s power to inspire, comfort, and heal.

The years 1978 and 1979 were auspicious ones for The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Philippe de Montebello became its Director and William D. Wixom its Chairman of the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters. By then, the Museum's two collections of medieval art jointly encompassed outstanding examples of metalwork, illuminated manuscripts, stained-glass panels, limestone and wood sculptures, textiles, and jewelry (both secular and religious), these items dating from the second century B.C. until well into the sixteenth century. During the ensuing years, under the keen eye and connoisseurship of the chairman and his curatorial staff, and supported enthusiastically by the new administration, the department's holdings grew considerably. Highlighted in these pages—and in an accompanying exhibition that allows the public to savor many of the works at first hand—are more than 300 purchases and gifts. Although a great majority of the objects have been on view and have figured in various Metropolitan Museum publications over the last two decades, many works have remained unpublished until now. Following a Foreword by the Director, the Introduction by William D. Wixom provides an overview of the enrichment of the collections under his stewardship. The reader then discovers how lacunae were filled, as highly significant examples of the art of the Middle Ages took their place among others with equally impressive provenances. The catalogue entries, which focus on more than 200 of the most important objects arranged chronologically by type and date, were written by present as well as former curators in the Department of Medieval Art, all recognized as experts in a particular period or field. Large color illustrations of the works, often shown in multiple views, accompany extensive documentation, including provenances, former collection and exhibition histories, notes, and bibliographic references. The book concludes with a Selected Bibliography and an Index. For those unaware of the richness and quality of the medieval treasures available for edification and enjoyment in New York's foremost museum, this volume offers an exciting introduction; for students and scholars of medieval art, it presents the opportunity to take an armchair tour of old favorites encountered on past visits to the Metropolitan's galleries and to become acquainted with the many splendid additions.

Both this book and the exhibition, Gothic and Renaissance Art in Nuremberg, document the artistic vitality of one of the most influential urban centers in Europe to arise at the end of the Middle Ages. The selection of specific works of art, and the essays that illuminate them, give a clear focus to the period from the fourteenth through the first half of the sixteenth century. This was a transitional and pivotal time for Nuremberg in its evolution from an important but artistically self-contained Late Gothic town to a Renaissance city, whose artistic, humanistic, technological, and scientific endeavors were of far-reaching consequence. The production of works of art—including some of the highest moments of human achievement—paralleled the city's strengthening commercial position. The benevolent yet firm hand of a patrician government produced a stable environment, while members of the great families became the leading patrons. The present occasion is a special "first" in several respects. Never before has such a constellation of fine Medieval and Renaissance objects been permitted to leave Germany for exhibition in the United States. This event provides the American public with a unique opportunity to study and enjoy a historic sampling of Nuremberg's past. Included here are objects created by important anonymous masters, such as the so-called "Hansel" Fountain Figure and the Schlüsselfelder Ship, along with major groups of works by such celebrated Nuremberg artists as Veit Stoss, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Suess von Kulmbach, Hans Baldung Grien, Peter Vischer the Elder and his sons, and Peter Flötner. Much of this art, which belongs to the museums and churches of Nuremberg, and to the city itself, is the nucleus of both this catalogue and the exhibition that it accompanies. The exhibition, likewise, is an especially valuable event for the Nuremberg public, who will see assembled in its city many well-known masterpieces that, over the centuries, have been dispersed to such far-flung locations as Aachen, Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Dublin, London, Oxford, Paris, and Vienna. To all lenders whose generosity has permitted this reunion, we are deeply grateful. While there have been other efforts, both by way of publications and exhibitions, to examine significant portions of the art and culture of Nuremberg's history—the most recent being Jeffrey Chipps Smith's excellent Nuremberg, A Renaissance City, 1500–1618, Austin, The University of Texas, 1983—the direction that the current project has taken, from its inception in 1982, has centered upon the inclusion of the widest possible range of works of art, diversified both in medium and in function, from the Late Gothic and the Renaissance periods (1300–1550), closing with examples by Peter Flötner and mid-sixteenth-century arms and armor. The result is unprecedented for its comprehensiveness. Another milestone of Gothic and Renaissance Art in Nuremberg is that it represents the remarkable international collaboration between the Germanisches Nationalmuseum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The project, initiated by the Metropolitan Museum but quickly augmented and given impetus by the museum in Nuremberg, has been formed, carried forward, and refined by the two curators-in-charge, Rainer Kahsnitz and William D. Wixom. The selection of subjects and objects is theirs. This effort has resulted in a valuable overview of many aspects of the theme of the exhibition and, at the same time, has led to intelligent reappraisals of a number of unfamiliar—as well as familiar—works of art.

The first of a special two-part edition of Recent Acquisitions, this Bulletin celebrates works acquired by the Museum in 2019 and 2020, many of which were gifts bestowed in honor of the Museum’s 150th anniversary year. Highlights of this volume include a sumptuous set of handscrolls depicting The Tale of Genji, a second-century Roman wellhead, a drawing of a landscape by French artist Claude Lorrain, and nearly one hundred Indian paintings. This publication also honors the many generous contributions from donors that make possible the continued growth of The Met's collection.