Detail from Christ is Born as Man’s Redeemer (Episode from The Story of the Redemption of Man), 1500–1520
South Netherlandish
Wool warp; wool and silk wefts
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, 1938 (38.28)
The thorny bush beneath the shackled feet of Man is the common blackberry or bramble, (Rubus fruticosus). Thorny plants are often associated with error and sin in medieval art. The black-fruited bramble was also associated with death.