The artifice of diversity
Byzantium, in the poetry of William Butler Yeats, meant changeless serenity. A famous, irresistible image. Byzantine art, in fact, was splendidly diverse
A NEW show that amply lives up to its name is “The Glory of Byzantium” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Not only do objects of beauty and splendour abound, but many of them have never travelled before and may very well never travel again. Something quite exceptional was needed, for instance, to secure the loan of a large group of icons from the Monastery of St Catherine in Sinai. Their presence is owed not only to a triumph of patience and diplomacy, but to an atmosphere of trust that was built up unhurriedly over visit after visit.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “The artifice of diversity”
From the March 22nd 1997 edition
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