Beds

The Metropolitan Museum has a wide variety of bed-related artworks, ranging from ancient to modern times. These artworks provide insight into how different cultures have used beds, both for practical and ceremonial purposes. Some of the bed-related artworks in The Metropolitan Museum date back thousands of years, while others were created more recently. No matter their age, these artworks offer a fascinating glimpse into how beds have been used throughout history.

The Annunciation

    This painting is one of the largest surviving depictions of the Annunciation.
    The painting was most likely commissioned by Ferry de Clugny, whose family coat of arms - the two joined keys - decorates the carpet and stained-glass window.

Aegina Visited by Jupiter

    Greuze insisted on submitting a painting to the Académie Royale that would gain him entry as a history painter, resulting in numerous false starts including this ambitious but unfinished canvas.
    It evokes the goddess Danaë, but may represent Aegina, daughter of the river god Aeopus who was visited by Jupiter and carried off by him in the form of an eagle.
    In 1767, Greuze wrote to Diderot that he "should very much like to paint a woman totally nude without offending modesty," perhaps in reference to this work.
    In 1769, however, Greuze finally submitted a different subject, his ill-fated Septimus Severus and Caracalla, today in the Musée du Louvre.

The Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist

    This panel once formed the right wing of an altarpiece dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, the left wing of which is nearby.
    Recounted in biblical texts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this pendant shows the martyrdom of the saint.
    John had been thrown into prison by King Herod for preaching against the latter's decision to marry his brother's wife, Herodias.
    Scheming with her mother to get rid of John, Salome danced seductively before Herod, thereafter demanding the head of John the Baptist as a reward.
    Herod reluctantly agreed, and the head of Saint John was delivered to Salome on a platter.

The Annunciation

    The painting is set in a richly furnished interior that would have been familiar to sixteenth-century viewers.
    The painting is influenced by Italian art, and Joos appropriated a new canon of beauty, a new repertory of rhetorical gesture, and a striking grace of movement in his figures.

The Birth and Naming of Saint John the Baptist; (reverse) Trompe-l'oeil with Painting of The Man of Sorrows

    This panel once formed the left wing of an altarpiece dedicated to Saint John the Baptist that was commissioned by abbot Jacques Coëne for the Benedictine Abbey Church in Marchiennes, near Tournai.
    It depicts Saint Elizabeth in bed, shortly after giving birth to the newborn saint.
   Zacharias appears at the entrance to her room, carrying a scroll which declares his son's name will be John
    The pendant shows the moment after the Baptist's death, when Salome receives his head on a platter.
   The centerpiece of the triptych, likely a sculpture of the Baptism of Christ, has not survived