Medieval Ukrainian treasures featured in Byzantium exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum (03/02/97)

Medieval Ukrainian treasures featured in Byzantium exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum

NEW YORK - "The Glory of Byzantium" exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the first major exhibition ever to focus on the art of the Middle Byzantine Empire (843-1261) and its relationship to that of neighboring Christian peoples, Islam and the Latin West.

Masterpieces of the arts of medieval Kyivan Rus', which have never been seen in the U.S., form a major part of the exhibition.

To be seen in New York only, the exhibit will be on view March 11-July 6.

The exhibit is the successor to the Metropolitan Museum's landmark 1977 exhibition "Age of Spirituality," which brought new attention to the first centuries of the Byzantine Empire, when the traditions of classical and late antiquity were transformed by the rise of Christianity and the Judaic world.

The Second Golden Age of Byzantine civilization, from the mid-ninth to the mid-13th century, witnessed the greatest expansion of its cultural influence. Nowhere was this influence more to the fore than in the Slavic world, particularly among the South and East Slavs, where the whole basis of culture was Byzantine.

It was precisely during this golden age that Kyivan Rus' came into existence and, upon having adopted Christianity in its Eastern form as the state religion, was drawn into the Byzantine sphere. The religion, literature, architecture and art of Kyivan Rus' were all originally inspired by and often directly based on Greco-Byzantine models.

A major gallery of the exhibition is devoted to the arts of the Kyivan Rus' state. Ukraine has lent many of the greatest treasures of its medieval history to the exhibition, most of which have never traveled before.

Approximately 20 objects from six museums in Ukraine, important examples of the religious and secular art of Kyivan Rus', are on display in the exhibition.

Four of the great mosaics from the cathedral of the Mykhailivskyi Zolotoverkhy Monastyr (St. Michael's of the Golden Domes Monastery) (1108), saved from the demolition of the cathedral by the Soviets in 1935/1936, are on loan from the St. Sophia National Architectural Preserve in Kyiv. These works have been installed to evoke the interior of a church.

Also on exhibit are: a mosaic floor from the Desiatynna (Tithe) Church in Kyiv; a capital from the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv as well as relief icons, medallions, cross enkolpions, ceramic tiles and jewelry.

Included in the exhibition is The Metropolitan Museum's own collection of jewelry from Kyivan Rus', discovered near the Desiatynna Church in Kyiv and given to the museum by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1917.

Loans to the exhibition have been made by the following museums in Ukraine: the St. Sophia National Architectural Preserve, National Museum of Art, National Historical Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv-Pechersk National Historical and Cultural Preserve, all in Kyiv, as well as the Sevastopol National Preserve of Kherson Tavriyskyi and the Lviv Historical Museum. Also among the lending institutions is the Museum of the Ukrainian Orthodox Memorial Church of the U.S.A., South Bound Brook, N.J.

Official support for the exhibition was provided by the Ministry of Culture and Arts of Ukraine and the State Committee of Ukraine for Urban Development and Architecture.

"The Glory of Byzantium" exhibition incoporates masterpieces on loan from major museums and church treasuries of more than 20 countries.

The participation of Ukraine, Bulgaria, Georgia, Cyprus and Syria in the exhibition marks the beginning of a historic new collaboration between these countries and The Metropolitan Museum.

Of special significance to the exhibition is the incorporation of works from Eastern Orthodox monasteries - Iveron on Mt. Athos, St. John the Theologian on Patmos, Greece, and St. Catherine's at Mount Sinai, Egypt - which in their long history have never before been lent abroad.

The exhibition features more than 350 works of art, including mosaics, icons, frescoes, ivories, enamels, silks, stone carvings, gems, ceramics, gold and silver secular and liturgical objects.

The exhibition is broadly structured in three parts.

The first section of the exhibition, devoted to the dual roles of the empire - as a great political state, with its capital city of Constantinople, and as the center of Christian Orthodoxy in the East - presents many of the finest examples of both the religious and secular art of Middle Byzantine culture.

The exhibition then explores the significant relationship of Byzantium to the art and culture of its Christian neighbors: Bulgarians and the Rus' to the north, Armenians and Georgians to the east, and Syrian and Egyptian Christians to the far south.

Finally, the exhibition documents the diffusion of Byzantine cultural influence far beyond its borders, including its emulation by, and interaction with, Islamic states in the Near East and Christian kingdoms in the Latin West.

The exhibition is curated by William D. Wixcom, the Michel David-Weill Chairman of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, and Helen C. Evans, associate curator for Early Christian and Byzantine Art, Department of Medieval Art.

The entry on Kyivan Rus' in the exhibition catalogue is by Olenka Pevny, research assistant at the department of medieval art at The Metropolitan. Dr. Pevny was directly involved in all aspects of preparatory work for the exhibition, both here and abroad.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated, 600-page catalogue that serves as both a textual and visual record of the exhibition. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Harry N. Abrams, it is available in both softcover and hardbound editions ($45 and $75, respectively) in the museum's bookshops and at bookstores nationwide.

In conjunction with the exhibition, an extensive program of educational events for visitors to the museum, scholars, teachers and students will be offered by The Metropolitan. In addition, there will be special programs about Byzantine art at The Cloisters, the branch of The Metropolitan Museum located in Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park that is devoted to the art of Medieval Europe.

- compiled by Ika Koznarska Casanova

An interview with Helen C. Evans, co-curator for "The Glory of Byzantium" exhibition will appear in a subsequent issue of The Weekly.

| Home Page |