Reflections on the exhibition “Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections”
Dr. Anastasia Drandaki Curator of Byzantine Art, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, 2013-2014
This lecture will focus on curatorial concerns that emerged during the preparations for and nstallation of the exhibition ‘Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections’ that opened first in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (Oct. 2013-‐March 2014), with a second venue to follow in the JP Getty Villa, Los Angeles (April-‐August 2014). The exhibition was organized by the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece, and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture in association with the two leading American museums.
The aim of the exhibition, the first Byzantine show ever in the National Gallery of Art, was to offer a coherent yet fairly concise overview of Byzantium’s culture and legacy. The focus is not solely on the Empire’s capital, Constantinople (modern Istanbul), as is usually the case with most Byzantine exhibitions, but on Greece, tracing the gradual transformations and the transition from the ancient to the medieval world, as witnessed in celebrated ancient Greek cities that remained important administrative and artistic centers in medieval times, such as Athens, Thessaloniki and Corinth. Negotiating our way between art and material culture, celebrated masterpieces and new archaeological discoveries, notions of center and periphery, devotional practices and everyday life where only some of the curators’ concerns during the preparation of the show. From another perspective, putting together, from Athens, a Byzantine exhibition addressing American visitors was a different kind of challenge, particularly as the two American museums hosting the exhibition have a diverse physiognomy and audience.