The Metropolitan Museum's collection of Medieval Art comprises works of this long and complex period between ancient and modern times in Western civilization that extends from the fourth to the early sixteenth century—that is, roughly from the Fall of Rome to the beginning of the Renaissance in Northern Europe. It encompasses all of its many phases, from its pre-Christian antecedents in Western Europe through the early Christian, Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic periods. The Museum's medieval holdings are also exhibited at The Cloisters, the branch of the Museum located on four acres overlooking the Hudson River in northern Manhattan’s Fort Tryon Park.
Above: Detail, Plaque with the Journey to Emmaus and the Noli Me Tangere, ca. 1115–1120; Spanish; Made in León; Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.190.47)