Byzantine meets Beaux Arts in New York City

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2001 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

The artistic output of the Byzantine Empire between 330 and 1453 was enormously varied and sophisticated. Many of the motifs and decorative elements had their roots in the classical world, yet there were adaptations as Christianity and Judaism spread as far as the southern borders of present-day Egypt. Hundreds of years later, at the end of the nineteenth century, an architectural style known as Beaux Arts emerged, and it too was based on the classical past.

A new suite of small galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City named the Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine Art, unites these two aesthetics in a delightful way. The H-shaped suite comprises the two long galleries flanking the grand staircase designed in the Beaux Arts style by Richard Morris Hunt and Richard Howland Hunt between 1894 and 1902, and a series of crypt-like galleries created from the space under the grand stair. The latter make successful use of the original exposed brick walls, and their ceilings are formed by the granite used to support the grand stair. These small vaulted galleries are low-ceilinged but not claustrophobic because the twin hallways that flank the stair are nearly always insight. This space is most sympathetic for viewing the mostly small-scale treasures within, made in Byzantine Egypt between the fourth and the mid-seventh centuries. The formerly dark and dreary corridors flanking the staircase have been given a facelift that includes new and beautifully lit cases that also contain Byzantine and early medieval artworks.

Among the works of art on view are intricately carved ivory panels, ornately mounted arms, enameled and gold jewelry, mosaics, textiles, architectural sculptures, silver and silver-gilt vessels, and ceramics. Many of the objects in the galleries beneath the stairs have been installed in cases specifically designed to fit the quirky spaces. Peering into these cases gives one a feeling of discovering each object in something akin to an archaeological context. It is an unconventional and thoroughly pleasing sensation.