Permanent Installations
Medieval Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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| View of Apse Gallery, Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
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| Byzantine (Constantinople). Jaharis Byzantine Gospel Lectionary (ca. 1100). Tempera, gold, ink on parchment and leather binding. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
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| Byzantine (possibly Greece or the Balkans). Marble Panel with a Griffin (1250-1300). Marble. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
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| Spanish (possibly León). Ivory Plaque with the Journey to Emmaus and Noli Me Tangere (ca. 1115-20). Ivory. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
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| French (Paris). Scenes from the Legend of Saint Vincent of Saragossa and the History of His Relics (ca. 1245-47). Pot-metal glass, vitreous paint and lead. From the Lady Chapel (now destroyed) of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
By STAN PARCHIN
June 26, 2010
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art possesses the Western Hemisphere's most comprehensive collection of art from the European Middle Ages. Its vast holdings of paintings, sculptures, architectural remnants, metalwork, illuminated manuscripts, drawings, textiles and stained glass are divided between the majestic Fifth Avenue location and The Cloisters Museum and Gardens in Fort Tryon Park. On November 18, 2008, some 900 objects returned to permanent view in the Main Building's renovated first-floor spaces. The expanded Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine Art surround and reside beneath the Great Staircase. Occupying the former Medieval Tapestry Hall is the Gallery for Western European Art from 1050 to 1300. Other secular and religious works inhabit rooms that lead to the museum's superb Arms and Armor installation.
Byzantine and Early Medieval Art
The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries are divided into four contiguous areas. Their objects of exceptional craftsmanship date from the establishment of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) as the Roman world's capital in 330 to the Byzantine Empire's conquest by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The cultures of Armenia, Georgia and Kievan Rus' are represented. Early medieval works that combine Byzantine, Roman, Celtic and Germanic traditions are also exhibited.
The Jaharis Byzantine Gospel Lectionary (ca. 1100), displayed within the apse, is an illuminated manuscript created for the church of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. It contains prayers for feast days and scriptures read during liturgical services.
Western European Art from 1050 to 1300
Western European works of art in all media from 1050 to about 1300 are exhibited in galleries previously reserved for medieval tapestries. The 18-foot-tall marble Ciborium (ca. 1150), a canopy that protected the altar in the church of Santo Stefano near Fiano Romano, northwest of Rome, is centrally located. Manuscript illuminations are displayed beneath the imposing stone structure on a rotating basis.
Italian works demonstrate the artistic cross-fertilization of the western medieval, Byzantine and Muslim cultures. Joining them are special loans of ivories, enamels, goldsmiths' work and sculptures. Stained-glass windows and panels, architectural statuary and large painted wooden crucifixes are prominently presented. Numerous vitrines (cases) feature examples of metalwork, some created along the pilgrimage roads through France, Spain and England. Reliquaries of Saint Thomas Becket are highlights of the installation.
Late medieval stained glass and tapestries are exhibited in the museum's Medieval Sculpture Hall and the Medieval Treasury.
Sources
Barnet, Peter and Pete Dandridge (eds.), et al. Lions, Dragons, & Other Beasts: Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages, Vessels for Church and Table (exh. cat.). New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006.
Evans, Helen C., Melanie Holcombe and Robert Hallman. The Arts of Byzantium. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.
Lowden, John. The Jaharis Gospel Lectionary: The Story of a Byzantine Book. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2009.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983, 350-371.
Wixom, William D. "Medieval Sculpture at the Metropolitan: 800-1400." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 62 (Spring 2005).