One doesn’t need a special exhibition to make a trip to the Cloisters worthwhile. The Met Museum’s upper-Manhattan campus is gorgeous, its view across the Hudson splendid, and the treasures inside beguiling. But here’s a subject that will shine like a jewel in such a setting: the hybrid creatures dreamed up by mankind and given form in sculpture, ceramics, ivories, textiles, paintings, and metalwork. Fantastical, terrifying, dazzling—these morphed and metaphorical beings were made between 500 and 1500 B.C. There will be around 50 objects on view. And while you’re there, don’t forget to visit the Unicorn Tapestries (c. 1495–1505)—one of the glories of civilization. —Laura Jacobs