Fragment with Personifications of Victory and the Nile

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is one of two fragments (see 1971.49.2) that may once have formed a single object celebrating the annual flooding of the Nile River. Holding a wreath, Nike (personification of victory) and the long-haired man Nilos (personification of the river) are surrounded by putti—small childlike figures that, in Egypt, symbolized the number of feet that the river rose each year, ushering in the season of growth and abundance.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art