Ruth Leon recommends… Exhibition Tour—Africa & Byzantium
Ruth Leon recommendsExhibition Tour—Africa & Byzantium
Art history has long emphasized the glories of the Byzantine Empire (circa 330–1453), but less known are the profound artistic contributions of North Africa, Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, and other powerful African kingdoms whose pivotal interactions with Byzantium had a lasting impact on the Mediterranean world.
Bringing together a range of masterworks—from mosaic, sculpture, pottery, and metalwork to luxury objects, paintings, and religious manuscripts—this exhibition recounts Africa’s central role in international networks of trade and cultural exchange.
With artworks rarely or never before seen in public, Africa & Byzantium sheds new light on the staggering artistic achievements of medieval Africa. This long-overdue exhibition highlights how the continent contributed to the development of the premodern world and offers a more complete history of the vibrant multiethnic societies of north and east Africa that shaped the artistic, economic, and cultural life of Byzantium and beyond.
Our guide to this virtual tour of the exhibition about Africa & Byzantium is its curator, Dr Andrea Myers Achi. She is Associate Curator of Byzantine Art in The Met’s Department of Medieval Art.
She certainly knows her stuff but her narration needs a lot of concentration because she speaks so quickly and with so little expression that she’s often hard to follow. I had to go back several times to ensure that I understood her erudite but often hard-to-follow comments.
But be patient. This is a wonderful exhibition and this virtual tour is essential viewing as a precursor for anyone who is going to see it in person at the Met.
Thank you very much for featuring this.