Metropolitan Museum of Art

The medieval collections are drawn from all historical phases of art in the Middle Ages: Early Christian (see Early Christian Art and Architecture), Byzantine (see Byzantine Art and Architecture), Migration, Romanesque (see Romanesque Art and Architecture), and Gothic (see Gothic Art and Architecture). The collections contain paintings, sculpture, silver, enamels, glass, ivory carvings, jewelry, and tapestries. They are displayed both in the main building and at The Cloisters, a building in northern Manhattan incorporating elements of five medieval cloisters (places of religious seclusion).

This collection of thousands of musical instruments illustrates the history of music and performance. The pieces were selected for technical and social importance as well as tonal and visual beauty. Of particular importance are instruments from medieval European courts, the oldest piano still in existence, rare violins and harpsichords, non-Western instruments, and the workshop of a traditional violin-maker.

The photography department houses a collection of more than 20,000 images, including examples from the mid-1800s by such masters as English photographer William Henry Fox Talbot and French photographer Nadar. Also notable is a collection of major works by avant-garde American and European photographers covering the half century from 1895 to 1945.

The Met boasts a textiles collection of more than 35,000 pieces. Housed in the Antonio Ratti Textile Center, the items include tapestries, carpets, quilts, silks, embroideries, laces, archaeological fragments, and velvets dating from 3000 bc to the present.

Located in the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing, this department includes European and American paintings, works on paper, sculpture, design, and architecture created from 1900 to the present. Works by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and Swiss artist Paul Klee, as well as examples of abstract expressionism, are especially well represented. The department displays sculptures during warm months in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor roof garden. See also Modern Art.