Silk with Griffins

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This exceptionally rare medieval textile is stylistically close to silks from the palls of 13th-century tombs excavated from the royal necropolis at Las Huelgas in Burgos. The extensive use of metallic threads creates a reflective quality and gives texture to the animated griffins. At the upper end, a band of repeating palmettes acts as a bridge to a partly lost pseudo-Kufic inscription. The piece is said to have been purchased from a Tibetan monastery, suggesting that it may have been sent eastward as a gift soon after its manufacture.

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