The Cloisters

The Cloisters—described by Germain Bazin, former director of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, as "the crowning achievement of American museology"—is the branch of the Metropolitan Museum devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Located on four acres overlooking the Hudson River in northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park, the building incorporates elements from five medieval French cloisters—quadrangles enclosed by a roofed or vaulted passageway, or arcade—and from other monastic sites in southern France. Three of the cloisters reconstructed at the branch museum feature gardens planted according to horticultural information found in medieval treatises and poetry, garden documents and herbals, and medieval works of art, such as tapestries, stained-glass windows, and column capitals. Approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about A.D. 800 with particular emphasis on the twelfth through fifteenth century, are exhibited in this unique and sympathetic context. The collection at The Cloisters is complemented by more than six thousand objects exhibited in several galleries on the first floor of the Museum's main building on Fifth Avenue. A single curatorial department oversees medieval holdings at both locations. The collection at the main building displays a somewhat broader geographical and temporal range, while the focus at The Cloisters is on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Renowned for its architectural sculpture, The Cloisters also rewards visitors with exquisite illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, and tapestries. Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/introduction.asp?dep=7

The Cloisters—described by Germain Bazin, former director of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, as "the crowning achievement of American museology"—is the branch of the Metropolitan Museum devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Located on four acres overlooking the Hudson River in northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park, the building incorporates elements from five medieval French cloisters—quadrangles enclosed by a roofed or vaulted passageway, or arcade—and from other monastic sites in southern France. Three of the cloisters reconstructed at the branch museum feature gardens planted according to horticultural information found in medieval treatises and poetry, garden documents and herbals, and medieval works of art, such as tapestries, stained-glass windows, and column capitals. Approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about A.D. 800 with particular emphasis on the twelfth through fifteenth century, are exhibited in this unique and sympathetic context. The collection at The Cloisters is complemented by more than six thousand objects exhibited in several galleries on the first floor of the Museum's main building on Fifth Avenue. A single curatorial department oversees medieval holdings at both locations. The collection at the main building displays a somewhat broader geographical and temporal range, while the focus at The Cloisters is on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Renowned for its architectural sculpture, The Cloisters also rewards visitors with exquisite illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, and tapestries. Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/introduction.asp?dep=7

The Cloisters—described by Germain Bazin, former director of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, as "the crowning achievement of American museology"—is the branch of the Metropolitan Museum devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Located on four acres overlooking the Hudson River in northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park, the building incorporates elements from five medieval French cloisters—quadrangles enclosed by a roofed or vaulted passageway, or arcade—and from other monastic sites in southern France. Three of the cloisters reconstructed at the branch museum feature gardens planted according to horticultural information found in medieval treatises and poetry, garden documents and herbals, and medieval works of art, such as tapestries, stained-glass windows, and column capitals. Approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about A.D. 800 with particular emphasis on the twelfth through fifteenth century, are exhibited in this unique and sympathetic context. The collection at The Cloisters is complemented by more than six thousand objects exhibited in several galleries on the first floor of the Museum's main building on Fifth Avenue. A single curatorial department oversees medieval holdings at both locations. The collection at the main building displays a somewhat broader geographical and temporal range, while the focus at The Cloisters is on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Renowned for its architectural sculpture, The Cloisters also rewards visitors with exquisite illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, and tapestries. Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/introduction.asp?dep=7

The Cloisters—described by Germain Bazin, former director of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, as "the crowning achievement of American museology"—is the branch of the Metropolitan Museum devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Located on four acres overlooking the Hudson River in northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park, the building incorporates elements from five medieval French cloisters—quadrangles enclosed by a roofed or vaulted passageway, or arcade—and from other monastic sites in southern France. Three of the cloisters reconstructed at the branch museum feature gardens planted according to horticultural information found in medieval treatises and poetry, garden documents and herbals, and medieval works of art, such as tapestries, stained-glass windows, and column capitals. Approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about A.D. 800 with particular emphasis on the twelfth through fifteenth century, are exhibited in this unique and sympathetic context. The collection at The Cloisters is complemented by more than six thousand objects exhibited in several galleries on the first floor of the Museum's main building on Fifth Avenue. A single curatorial department oversees medieval holdings at both locations. The collection at the main building displays a somewhat broader geographical and temporal range, while the focus at The Cloisters is on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Renowned for its architectural sculpture, The Cloisters also rewards visitors with exquisite illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, and tapestries. Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/introduction.asp?dep=7

The Cloisters—described by Germain Bazin, former director of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, as "the crowning achievement of American museology"—is the branch of the Metropolitan Museum devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Located on four acres overlooking the Hudson River in northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park, the building incorporates elements from five medieval French cloisters—quadrangles enclosed by a roofed or vaulted passageway, or arcade—and from other monastic sites in southern France. Three of the cloisters reconstructed at the branch museum feature gardens planted according to horticultural information found in medieval treatises and poetry, garden documents and herbals, and medieval works of art, such as tapestries, stained-glass windows, and column capitals. Approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about A.D. 800 with particular emphasis on the twelfth through fifteenth century, are exhibited in this unique and sympathetic context. The collection at The Cloisters is complemented by more than six thousand objects exhibited in several galleries on the first floor of the Museum's main building on Fifth Avenue. A single curatorial department oversees medieval holdings at both locations. The collection at the main building displays a somewhat broader geographical and temporal range, while the focus at The Cloisters is on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Renowned for its architectural sculpture, The Cloisters also rewards visitors with exquisite illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, and tapestries. Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/introduction.asp?dep=7

The Cloisters—described by Germain Bazin, former director of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, as "the crowning achievement of American museology"—is the branch of the Metropolitan Museum devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Located on four acres overlooking the Hudson River in northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park, the building incorporates elements from five medieval French cloisters—quadrangles enclosed by a roofed or vaulted passageway, or arcade—and from other monastic sites in southern France. Three of the cloisters reconstructed at the branch museum feature gardens planted according to horticultural information found in medieval treatises and poetry, garden documents and herbals, and medieval works of art, such as tapestries, stained-glass windows, and column capitals. Approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about A.D. 800 with particular emphasis on the twelfth through fifteenth century, are exhibited in this unique and sympathetic context. The collection at The Cloisters is complemented by more than six thousand objects exhibited in several galleries on the first floor of the Museum's main building on Fifth Avenue. A single curatorial department oversees medieval holdings at both locations. The collection at the main building displays a somewhat broader geographical and temporal range, while the focus at The Cloisters is on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Renowned for its architectural sculpture, The Cloisters also rewards visitors with exquisite illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, and tapestries. Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/introduction.asp?dep=7

The Cloisters—described by Germain Bazin, former director of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, as "the crowning achievement of American museology"—is the branch of the Metropolitan Museum devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Located on four acres overlooking the Hudson River in northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park, the building incorporates elements from five medieval French cloisters—quadrangles enclosed by a roofed or vaulted passageway, or arcade—and from other monastic sites in southern France. Three of the cloisters reconstructed at the branch museum feature gardens planted according to horticultural information found in medieval treatises and poetry, garden documents and herbals, and medieval works of art, such as tapestries, stained-glass windows, and column capitals. Approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about A.D. 800 with particular emphasis on the twelfth through fifteenth century, are exhibited in this unique and sympathetic context. The collection at The Cloisters is complemented by more than six thousand objects exhibited in several galleries on the first floor of the Museum's main building on Fifth Avenue. A single curatorial department oversees medieval holdings at both locations. The collection at the main building displays a somewhat broader geographical and temporal range, while the focus at The Cloisters is on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Renowned for its architectural sculpture, The Cloisters also rewards visitors with exquisite illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, and tapestries. Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/introduction.asp?dep=7

The Cloisters—described by Germain Bazin, former director of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, as "the crowning achievement of American museology"—is the branch of the Metropolitan Museum devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Located on four acres overlooking the Hudson River in northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park, the building incorporates elements from five medieval French cloisters—quadrangles enclosed by a roofed or vaulted passageway, or arcade—and from other monastic sites in southern France. Three of the cloisters reconstructed at the branch museum feature gardens planted according to horticultural information found in medieval treatises and poetry, garden documents and herbals, and medieval works of art, such as tapestries, stained-glass windows, and column capitals. Approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about A.D. 800 with particular emphasis on the twelfth through fifteenth century, are exhibited in this unique and sympathetic context. The collection at The Cloisters is complemented by more than six thousand objects exhibited in several galleries on the first floor of the Museum's main building on Fifth Avenue. A single curatorial department oversees medieval holdings at both locations. The collection at the main building displays a somewhat broader geographical and temporal range, while the focus at The Cloisters is on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Renowned for its architectural sculpture, The Cloisters also rewards visitors with exquisite illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, and tapestries. Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/introduction.asp?dep=7

The Cloisters—described by Germain Bazin, former director of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, as "the crowning achievement of American museology"—is the branch of the Metropolitan Museum devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Located on four acres overlooking the Hudson River in northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park, the building incorporates elements from five medieval French cloisters—quadrangles enclosed by a roofed or vaulted passageway, or arcade—and from other monastic sites in southern France. Three of the cloisters reconstructed at the branch museum feature gardens planted according to horticultural information found in medieval treatises and poetry, garden documents and herbals, and medieval works of art, such as tapestries, stained-glass windows, and column capitals. Approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about A.D. 800 with particular emphasis on the twelfth through fifteenth century, are exhibited in this unique and sympathetic context. The collection at The Cloisters is complemented by more than six thousand objects exhibited in several galleries on the first floor of the Museum's main building on Fifth Avenue. A single curatorial department oversees medieval holdings at both locations. The collection at the main building displays a somewhat broader geographical and temporal range, while the focus at The Cloisters is on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Renowned for its architectural sculpture, The Cloisters also rewards visitors with exquisite illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, and tapestries. Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/introduction.asp?dep=7

The Cloisters—described by Germain Bazin, former director of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, as "the crowning achievement of American museology"—is the branch of the Metropolitan Museum devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Located on four acres overlooking the Hudson River in northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park, the building incorporates elements from five medieval French cloisters—quadrangles enclosed by a roofed or vaulted passageway, or arcade—and from other monastic sites in southern France. Three of the cloisters reconstructed at the branch museum feature gardens planted according to horticultural information found in medieval treatises and poetry, garden documents and herbals, and medieval works of art, such as tapestries, stained-glass windows, and column capitals. Approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about A.D. 800 with particular emphasis on the twelfth through fifteenth century, are exhibited in this unique and sympathetic context. The collection at The Cloisters is complemented by more than six thousand objects exhibited in several galleries on the first floor of the Museum's main building on Fifth Avenue. A single curatorial department oversees medieval holdings at both locations. The collection at the main building displays a somewhat broader geographical and temporal range, while the focus at The Cloisters is on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Renowned for its architectural sculpture, The Cloisters also rewards visitors with exquisite illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, and tapestries. Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/introduction.asp?dep=7

The George Washington Bridge (known informally as the GW Bridge, the GWB, the GW, or the George) is a suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting the Washington Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City to Fort Lee in New Jersey by means of Interstate 95, U.S. Route 1/9. U.S. Route 46, which is entirely in New Jersey, ends halfway across the bridge at the state border. The GW is considered one of the world's busiest bridges in terms of vehicle traffic; In 2004, the bridge carried 108,404,000 vehicles, with current AADT estimates of nearly 300,000 vehicles daily. The GW span is the fourth largest suspension bridge in the United States. The bridge contains two levels, an upper level with four lanes in each direction and a lower level with three lanes in each direction, for a total of 14 lanes of travel. Additionally, the bridge houses a path on each side of the bridge for pedestrian traffic. The speed limit on the bridge is 45 mph (70 km/h), though heavy traffic is common and frequently makes it difficult to reach such speeds. Text from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Bridge

The George Washington Bridge (known informally as the GW Bridge, the GWB, the GW, or the George) is a suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting the Washington Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City to Fort Lee in New Jersey by means of Interstate 95, U.S. Route 1/9. U.S. Route 46, which is entirely in New Jersey, ends halfway across the bridge at the state border. The GW is considered one of the world's busiest bridges in terms of vehicle traffic; In 2004, the bridge carried 108,404,000 vehicles, with current AADT estimates of nearly 300,000 vehicles daily. The GW span is the fourth largest suspension bridge in the United States. The bridge contains two levels, an upper level with four lanes in each direction and a lower level with three lanes in each direction, for a total of 14 lanes of travel. Additionally, the bridge houses a path on each side of the bridge for pedestrian traffic. The speed limit on the bridge is 45 mph (70 km/h), though heavy traffic is common and frequently makes it difficult to reach such speeds. Text from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Bridge

Lion from a Frieze, after 1200 Spanish; Made in San Pedro de Arlanza, Castile-León Fresco, mounted on canvas; 7 x 11 ft. (226.1 x 335.3 cm) The Cloisters Collection, 1931 (31.38.1a) This wall painting and its companion, which depicts a dragon, are closely related to a cycle of frescoes at Sigena (Huesca), thought to be by an English painter from Winchester. Notwithstanding attempts to find symbolic significance in these beasts, contemporary texts state that "images of animal, birds, serpents and other things are for adornment and beauty only." Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/the_cl...

Lion from a Frieze, after 1200 Spanish; Made in San Pedro de Arlanza, Castile-León Fresco, mounted on canvas; 7 x 11 ft. (226.1 x 335.3 cm) The Cloisters Collection, 1931 (31.38.1a) This wall painting and its companion, which depicts a dragon, are closely related to a cycle of frescoes at Sigena (Huesca), thought to be by an English painter from Winchester. Notwithstanding attempts to find symbolic significance in these beasts, contemporary texts state that "images of animal, birds, serpents and other things are for adornment and beauty only." Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/the_cl...

Enthroned Virgin and Child Walnut with paint, gesso and linen Carved late 1100s, in the region of Auvergne, central France Said to be from the chapel of Saint-Victor at Montvianeix (Puy-de-Dome) Accession Number: 67.153 This type of sculpture, with the Christ Child seated on the Virgin's lap in a frontal pose, is known as a Sedes Sapientiae (Seat of Wisdom). These seeminly straightforward images convey complex theological ideas. Mary serves as a throne for Christ who possesses wisdom and justice, symbolized here by the Bible, the sum of divine wisdom that he himself embodies. Placed on an altar, this imposing group was an object of veneration that could be carried in procession. A circular cavity in the Virgin's left shoulder also functioned as a reliquary. Recent conservation treatment has revealed remains of the original painted decoration. A Virgin probably by the same workshop is on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Text from the Cloisters label.

Enthroned Virgin and Child Walnut with paint, gesso and linen Carved late 1100s, in the region of Auvergne, central France Said to be from the chapel of Saint-Victor at Montvianeix (Puy-de-Dome) Accession Number: 67.153 This type of sculpture, with the Christ Child seated on the Virgin's lap in a frontal pose, is known as a Sedes Sapientiae (Seat of Wisdom). These seeminly straightforward images convey complex theological ideas. Mary serves as a throne for Christ who possesses wisdom and justice, symbolized here by the Bible, the sum of divine wisdom that he himself embodies. Placed on an altar, this imposing group was an object of veneration that could be carried in procession. A circular cavity in the Virgin's left shoulder also functioned as a reliquary. Recent conservation treatment has revealed remains of the original painted decoration. A Virgin probably by the same workshop is on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Text from the Cloisters label.

Tympanum with the Three Temptations of Christ and Lintel with Angels Supporting the Lamb of God Limestone Attributed to the Cabestany Master Spain, Navarre, ca. 1150-1175 From the church of Errondo at Unciti, near Pamplona Accession Number: 65.1.22.1,.2 Both the rounded tympanum and the rectangular lintel above the doorway stress the triumph of faith and the Eucharist. Christ is shown four times: three times the Devil tempts him– to create bread from stones, to cast himself off a mountain, and to worship Satan– and the fourth time angels minster to him The lintel contains angels supporting a medallion with the Lamb of God, symbolizing Christ’s sacrifice, and the monogram of Christ. The eccentric treatment of the heads, with low foreheads and emphatic eyes, is characteristic of the work of a carver of the tympanum Cabestany (Roussillon), who may have come from Tuscany. Text from the Cloisters museum label.