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Quatrefoil Roundel with Arms and Secular Scenes

1490–1500
On view at The Met Cloisters in Gallery 13
In the center of this panel are the imperial arms of Austria. The scenes in the quatrefoil represent a variety of secular vignettes. These scenes may signify a tournament masquerade of the type held in Nuremberg before Lent, which would explain the presence of fools, feasts, and lovers. Such imagery was understood as social satire in late medieval art. The number of similar quatrefoil panels that have survived suggests considerable popularity. The origin of the designs is uncertain, but many copies and variations were made in several Nuremberg, workshops, including that of Albrecht Dürer.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Quatrefoil Roundel with Arms and Secular Scenes
  • Date: 1490–1500
  • Geography: Made in Nuremberg, Germany
  • Culture: German
  • Medium: Pot-metal glass, white glass, vitreous paint, and silver stain
  • Dimensions: Diam: 12 1/4 in. (31.1 cm)
  • Classification: Glass-Stained
  • Credit Line: Samuel P. Avery Memorial Fund, 1911
  • Object Number: 11.120.1
  • Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters

Audio

Cover Image for 43. Quatrefoil Panel with Coat of Arms and Secular Scenes

43. Quatrefoil Panel with Coat of Arms and Secular Scenes

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Album of Tournaments and Parades in Nuremberg, Pen and ink, watercolor, gold and silver washes; paper bound in gold-tooled leather, German, Nuremberg
Album of Tournaments and Parades in Nuremberg
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late 16th–mid-17th century
Roundel with the Temptation of Saint Anthony, Colorless glass, vitreous paint and silver stain, German
Roundel with the Temptation of Saint Anthony
German
1532
Standing Virgin and Child, Niclaus Gerhaert von Leyden North Netherlandish, Boxwood, tinted lips and eyes, Austrian
Standing Virgin and Child
Attributed to Niclaus Gerhaert von Leyden
ca. 1470
Armor of Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564), Kunz Lochner German, Steel, brass, leather, German, Nuremberg
Armor of Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564)
Armorer Kunz Lochner
dated 1549
Roundel with Saint Peter, Colorless glass, vitreous paint and silver stain, South Netherlandish
Roundel with Saint Peter
South Netherlandish
ca. 1520

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