About the Museum
The Met Cloisters, which opened to the public in 1938, is the branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Located in Fort Tryon Park in northern Manhattan, on a spectacular four-acre lot overlooking the Hudson River, the modern museum building is not a copy of any specific medieval structure but an ensemble informed by a selection of historical precedents, with a deliberate combination of ecclesiastical and secular spaces arranged in chronological order. Elements from medieval cloisters and from other historic sites in Europe have been incorporated into the fabric of the building.
Approximately 3,000 works of art from medieval Europe comprise the rest of the collection, dating from the 9th through the 16th centuries. Medieval manuscripts, marvelous stone sarcophagi and carved reliquaries are all found here, as well as a wondrous treasury containing many exquisite jeweled objects.
Photograph: Bonnefont Cloister at The Cloisters museum and gardens Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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Collection Highlights
Cuxa Cloister, made in present-day France, Catalan, c.1130-40
Beaker with Apes, made in probably the Burgundian territories, South Netherlandish, c.1425-50
Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece), South Netherlandish, c.1427-1432
The Unicorn in Captivity, South Netherlandish, c.1495-1505
The Cloisters Playing Cards, c.1475-1480
