Welcome to the Index of Medieval Art

Welcome to the Index of Medieval Art online database. Our online holdings complement and partly overlap with the print Index at Princeton University, which is currently being integrated into the database. The collections include images and descriptive data related to the iconography of works of art produced between late Antiquity and the sixteenth century. Although the Index of Medieval Art was formerly known as the Index of Christian Art, it now includes secular subjects as well as a growing number of subjects from medieval Jewish and Muslim cultures. In cataloging and describing this material, we remain committed to pursuing the respectful and accurate representation of medieval visual traditions in all of their diversity. Should you have questions or feedback concerning Index records, please feel free to contact our staff using this form.

Featured Works of Art

A manuscript page with paintings of plants and the inscriptions COSTUS and CUCURBITA.

Costus and gourd plant, partial manuscript of Matthaeus Platearius, Compendium Salernitanum, Morga...

System Number:182971

A photographic detail of an illuminated manuscript that contains the initial M composed of three fish and two birds, surrounded by Latin text.

Zoomorphic initial M, New York, Morgan Library & Museum, Ms. M. 334, fol. 2r, detail.

System Number:184401

Micromosaic of full female figure holding with her left hand female child at the center; silver frame alternating panels with single figures with Greek inscriptions and ornamental motifs.

Micromosaic of Anna holding the Virgin Mary with silver frame, Vatopedi monastery, Mount Athos.

System Number:mar20240322001

A pen drawing in blue ink of a nude man reclining on a line of text, with a single large foot raised above his head.

Sciapod, psalter, Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.102, det. of fol. 13r

System Number:115644

A three-headed animal carved in relief on an ivory disk.

Three-headed animal, ivory game piece, National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, inv. no. D444/1978.

System Number:hds20240515003

Manuscript page of calendar, written in Latin and German, with margins depicting scene an agricultural scene of two female laborers beating and cutting grain, and two male laborers threshing grain in a barn surrounded by houses, an oblong vine enclosing a male figure holding a musket, and strewn naturalistic flowers including strawberries and violas, against a gold background.

Labors of the Month, November; Zodiac Sign of Sagittarius, Prayer Book, New York Public Library, M...

System Number:jls20240729020

The head of a silver-gilt framed ivory crozier, inscribed in Latin and set with colorful gems, the central ivory portion depicting a woman, veiled and crowned, holding an infant and flanked by two angels.

Virgin Mary and Christ Child with Angels, ivory crozier, Brno, Moravian Gallery, Side 2.

System Number:jls20230828001

On a carved ivory panel, a woman standing next to a wheel and holding a palm branch, and a woman standing with one foot on a dragon and holding a cross.

Catherine of Alexandria and Margaret of Antioch, right wing of an ivory diptych, Museum Mayer van ...

System Number:hds20230620001

A panel painting with a gold background that contains a representation of a haloed woman who holds a book and receives a ring from a haloed, bearded man who holds a book. Below this scene is a representation of a child flanked by two women seated on a bench. On the lowest portion of the panel are three sets of figures. The central group consists of an angel behind two embracing men, flanked to the left by a woman hitting a devil with a hammer, and flanked to the right by an angel attacking a devil with a staff.

The Mystical Marriage of Catherine of Alexandria, panel painting, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 191...

System Number:85499

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The Index of Medieval Art

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