As the triumphant Byzantine general Michael VIII Palaiologos entered Constantinople on August 15, 1261, carrying aloft the famed icon of the Virgin Hodegetria, the city’s eternal protector, he initiated an artistic and intellectual flowering in Byzantium, and among its East Christian rivals, that would endure for nearly 300 years. The restoration of the “Empire of the Romans”"—the Basilea ton Rhomaion—just 57 years after the fall of Constantinople to the knights of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 encouraged faith-inspired art of astonishing beauty and widespread influence.
This spring, The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s landmark exhibition Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557) brings together more than 350 masterpieces of Byzantine art from some 30 nations, including Greece, Bulgaria, Egypt, France, Italy, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Serbia and Montenegro, and FYR-Macedonia. These extraordinary works, some seen rarely and others never shown outside the churches and monasteries that have preserved them through succeeding centuries, are among those countries’ most cherished artistic treasures. The exhibition will include magnificent frescoes, superb textiles and monumental liturgical objects from throughout the world of Byzantium, as well as major works from European and Islamic traditions that reflect their influence. In addition, 40 magnificent icons from the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine at Sinai will join others now dispersed in leading museums across the world, resulting in a remarkable display of icons of the Late Byzantine era.
“Byzantium: Faith and Power is the first major museum exhibition to focus solely on the great artistic flowering of the Palaiologan period and the subsequent appropriation of this culture by rival claimants to power,” commented Philippe de Montebello, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "This ambitious project—the successor to The Metropolitan Museum’s two previous landmark exhibitions on Byzantine art—seeks to enhance public appreciation of the exceptional artistic accomplishments of an era too often considered primarily in terms of political decline.”
Mr. de Montebello continued: “The exhibition is possible only because of the extraordinary collaboration of institutions from an unprecedented number of countries, some of which have never before lent works of art to museums in the United States. We are particularly honored by the exceptional support offered by the countries of the former Byzantine sphere, especially Greece. In fact, Greece’s monasteries and cultural centers, such as Thessaloniki and Mistras, produced moving religious art and at the same time encouraged a revival of classical learning that inspired the Renaissance in Italy. After Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, Mistras survived for nearly a decade. Thus, appropriately, it is a Greek site that is the last outpost of the great Empire that our exhibition celebrates.”
Helen C. Evans, the exhibition’s curator, described the exhibition as “a unique opportunity to display the culmination of a great culture, which lasted more than 1,000 years. The exhibition begins with the joyous celebration of the restoration of imperial rule in Constantinople in 1261. It concludes in 1557 when the Basilea ton Rhomaion, as its citizens knew it, was first called ‘Byzantium,’ for during that period the Ottoman Turks, Russia and other western states sought to inherit the mantle of the New Rome, Constantinople, through their adaptation of its art and culture.”
Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557) demonstrates the artistic and cultural importance of this era primarily through the arts of the Orthodox Church. Arranged thematically, the exhibition will begin with a gallery of donor portraits to introduce the modern visitor to the people of that world. The subsequent galleries will display sacred icons painted on gold ground; luxuriously embroidered silk textiles; richly gilded metalwork; exquisite miniature mosaic icons of glass, precious metals and gemstones; powerful frescoes; and elaborately decorated manuscripts made for the churches of the Orthodox world and other East Christian faiths. The exhibition will examine the significance of Byzantine culture for the Latin West—especially its importance in the development of the Renaissance—as well as for the world of Islam.
The Museum’s Web site, www.metmuseum.org, will feature the exhibition.
The exhibition is organized by Helen C. Evans, Curator, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, and developed by The Metropolitan Museum of Art through the office of the Associate Director for Exhibitions, Mahrukh Tarapor.
In conjunction with Byzantium: Faith and Power, a variety of educational general programs, including a program of lectures and concerts, will be scheduled for the public and for scholars. An academic symposium of Byzantine scholars from Europe and America will take place at the Museum April 16-18, 2004.
