Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art (on Fifth Avenue), often referred to simply as "the Met," is one of the world's largest and most important art museums. In 1969, Nelson A. Rockefeller donated 3,000 pieces from his collection to the Metropolitan Museum, and today works of interest to the RQ project are housed in the Rockefeller Wing on the south end of the museum: ceramics, stelae, and relief carvings depicting the quetzal and other birds.

In particular, the RQ project is interested in the museum's featherwork art, especially the remarkable and rare "feather mosaic" folding triptych, or sacring tablet (called a "sacra" in Spanish and consisting of featherwork and colored paper placed on wood with a folding gilt frame that protects the delicate media), which was meant to be placed on the altar during Catholic Mass. The colonial religious object contains a central panel that has text from the Mass relating to the Eucharist. Both text and images are designed from iridescent feathers laid down on backing. The feathers are believed to be hummingbird (the feathers are miniscule), but scientists are currently analyzing similar works to establish a more definitive identification.

More information about the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art can be found at www.metmuseum.org