Treasures of Byzantium from far and wide show a rich, complex culture
The great historian Edward Gibbon called it "a triumph of barbarism and superstition". Voltaire declared it was "a disgrace to the human mind". All in all, Byzantium has not had a great press from post-enlightenment thinkers. But a new blockbuster exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London will aim to show the civilisation in a fresh light, "so that people will be able to understand the Byzantine world in all its complexity and glory", according to Charles Saumarez Smith, the RA's secretary and chief executive.
Instead of accepting the traditional view that Byzantium represents a decline from the artistic glories of classical Greece and Rome, the exhibition will bring together a horde of glistering treasures - many never before seen in public, let alone in Britain - to present a rich account of a thriving culture that stretched over Greece, Turkey, the Balkans, Ukraine, Syria and Egypt. The exhibition will span a period of over 1,000 years, from AD330, when Emperor Constantine consecrated his new capital, to 1453, when the city fell to the Ottoman Turks.
It will be the first major exhibition on the Byzantine empire in the UK for 50 years, and the most complex the RA has staged in years, according to Adrian Locke, the academy's acting head of exhibitions. Three hundred objects will come from over 100 lending institutions - some from institutions that do not, in fact, officially lend.
According to Robin Cormack, one of the co-curators of the exhibition, items are coming to London from the treasury of St Mark's, Venice - objects that are nominally forbidden from travelling, but have been allowed on this occasion to be seen in the UK as a homage to John Ruskin, the great Victorian champion of Byzantine art.
However, attempts to borrow material from Mount Athos have failed; according to co-curator Maria Vassilaki, the negotiations risked being caught up in a dispute between the famous monastic community and the Greek government over tax payments. "We decided there was no point in pushing it further," she said.
On the other hand, the exhibition will feature rarely seen objects from the monastery of St Catherine, Sinai, including an important series of early icons and an extraordinary work known as the Ladder of Divine Ascent by St John Klimacus, which shows monks ascending a ladder towards heaven. Except, that is, for those who have failed to avoid various vices: these malefactors are being pulled down by tiny winged demons, who, with their bows and arrows, look like devilish cupids...
Read entire article at Guardian (UK)
Instead of accepting the traditional view that Byzantium represents a decline from the artistic glories of classical Greece and Rome, the exhibition will bring together a horde of glistering treasures - many never before seen in public, let alone in Britain - to present a rich account of a thriving culture that stretched over Greece, Turkey, the Balkans, Ukraine, Syria and Egypt. The exhibition will span a period of over 1,000 years, from AD330, when Emperor Constantine consecrated his new capital, to 1453, when the city fell to the Ottoman Turks.
It will be the first major exhibition on the Byzantine empire in the UK for 50 years, and the most complex the RA has staged in years, according to Adrian Locke, the academy's acting head of exhibitions. Three hundred objects will come from over 100 lending institutions - some from institutions that do not, in fact, officially lend.
According to Robin Cormack, one of the co-curators of the exhibition, items are coming to London from the treasury of St Mark's, Venice - objects that are nominally forbidden from travelling, but have been allowed on this occasion to be seen in the UK as a homage to John Ruskin, the great Victorian champion of Byzantine art.
However, attempts to borrow material from Mount Athos have failed; according to co-curator Maria Vassilaki, the negotiations risked being caught up in a dispute between the famous monastic community and the Greek government over tax payments. "We decided there was no point in pushing it further," she said.
On the other hand, the exhibition will feature rarely seen objects from the monastery of St Catherine, Sinai, including an important series of early icons and an extraordinary work known as the Ladder of Divine Ascent by St John Klimacus, which shows monks ascending a ladder towards heaven. Except, that is, for those who have failed to avoid various vices: these malefactors are being pulled down by tiny winged demons, who, with their bows and arrows, look like devilish cupids...