The Cloisters is a branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and is considered to be America's only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of the Middle Ages. Picturesquely overlooking the Hudson River in Fort Tryon Park the Cloisters Museum derives its name from the portions of five medieval cloisters incorporated into a modern museum structure. I’ve always wanted to visit during the winter months and decided to make the trip this December and partake in a tour.

When we arrived into the main hall we saw that the four archways were decorated with swags of lady apples, ivy, pinecones, hazelnuts, rose hips and holly. The plant materials used to create the Christmas decorations throughout the Cloisters are associated with medieval celebration of Christmastide, the 12 days between the Nativity and the Epiphany. Visual evidence for medieval holiday decorations is extremely rare, but references in carols and other sources provide information that informed the design of the decorations. Evergreens feature heavily because they were particularly important plants in medieval Europe during this festive time of year. Used in both domestic and sacred spaces, plants were believed to be agents of blessing and providers of protection. Evergreens were reminders of the coming spring and of the promise of eternal life since they remained green while other trees were bare.

As we made our way through the exhibits our tour guide pointed to the various live plants placed within the glassed in arcades. During the colder months the interior walkways become a conservatory filled with tender plants such as date palm, orange, rosemary, and bay. Potted bulbs, forced into early bloom were also on display.

Our tour guide took us through the galleries explaining certain points about the artwork. We decided to break away and do some exploring and found some remarkable works of art.

The Unicorn Rests in a Garden is perhaps the most well known and famous of the seven tapestries that hang at the Cloisters. The early provenance of the tapestries is unclear and it is speculated that they were woven in Brussels. It is known they were owned by the La Rochefoucauld family of France for several centuries, with first mention of them showing up in the family's 1728 inventory. During the French Revolution the tapestries were looted from the château and by the end of the 1880s they were again in the possession of the family.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. bought them in 1922 for about one million US dollars. Six of the tapestries hung in Rockefeller's house until The Cloisters was built when he donated them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1938 and at the same time secured for the collection the two fragments the La Rochefauld family had retained. The set now hangs in The Cloisters.

We also saw on exhibit a collection of plants used to create dyes presumably those that were used to create the tapestries exhibited within the Cloisters. As an artist I found the exhibit of the plants and their processed pigments especially fascinating.

We enjoyed our visit and we have already made plans to return in the warmer months to experience the Cloisters numerous gardens and live musical programs. If you haven’t been to the Cloisters I highly recommend you make the trip. It’s a beautiful place.