“Heraldic Panel of Wilhelm von Weitingen” (1518), (image courtesy The Met Cloisters)
Game of Thrones may be finished (for now), but medieval history and the concepts of chivalry and knighthood are no less fascinating in its absence. Fortunately, those in New York can get their fix of heraldry, armor, and swashbuckling this weekend at the Met Cloisters, where lecturer Mary Halbach will lead a talk on the museum’s medieval pieces titled “Armed and Dangerous: The Medieval Knight in Art.”
The three works Halbach will focus on all “illustrate key moments in the evolution of armor,” the Cloisters tells Hyperallergic. The works are the “Sepulchral Monument of Ermengol X, Count of Urgell” (ca. 1300–1350); a “Heraldic Panel of Wilhelm von Weitingen” (1518); and the tomb effigy of “A Knight of the d’Aluye Family” (after 1248–by 1267) — which depicts a French knight mysteriously holding a Chinese sword. The talk will not focus on armor or artifacts of medieval warfare itself, but rather on the secrets that these depictions in art and others like them hold.
Like other gallery talks, the discussion is free with museum admission and advance reservations are not necessary. There’s limited space in the gallery, so per the Cloisters’s standard rules, preorganized groups of ten or more cannot be accommodated.
When: 12-1 pm and 2-3 pm on Sunday, June 2
Where: The Met Cloisters (99 Margaret Corbin Dr, Manhattan, New York)
