Quatrefoil Roundel with Arms and Secular Scenes

Quatrefoil Roundel with Arms and Secular Scenes

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Quatrefoil Roundel with Arms and Secular ScenesQuatrefoil Roundel with Arms and Secular ScenesQuatrefoil Roundel with Arms and Secular ScenesQuatrefoil Roundel with Arms and Secular ScenesQuatrefoil Roundel with Arms and Secular Scenes

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.