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Article: Going to Byzantium: art and spirituality converge in the Met's dazzling exhibit of Byzantine art.(Art)("Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557)" )
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- June 4, 2004
- Author:
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One of the largest, most demanding exhibitions I have ever seen, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557)," is also the quietest. On a recent Sunday afternoon, the galleries were as silent as any church.
Why the hush? Certainly it was stimulated by the art, all of it religious in origin and style. It's not appropriate to tell jokes in front of an icon of the Dormition (the laying-out of the deceased Mary) or the Anastasis (the harrowing of Hell, Christ pulling Adam and Eve from death). Chatting about where you should lunch before a 14th-century mosaic icon holding a hundred fragments of saints is also not acceptable, even in New ...