"Africa & Byzantium" Preview - Cleveland Museum of Art

Africa & Byzantium considers the complex artistic relationships between northern and eastern African Christian kingdoms and the Byzantine Empire from the fourth century CE and beyond. The first international loan exhibition to treat this subject, the show includes more than 160 works of secular and sacred art from across geographies and faiths, including large-scale frescoes, mosaics, and luxury goods such as metalwork, jewelry, panel paintings, architectural elements, textiles, and illuminated manuscripts.

Lent from collections in Africa, Europe, and North America, many works have never been exhibited in the US. Most were made by African artists or imported to the continent at the request of the powerful rulers of precolonial kingdoms and empires. The art and faith of these historical kingdoms—including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—resonate with many worldwide today.

The exhibition is organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Thank you to the Cleveland Museum of Art for inviting us to the Wednesday, April 10, 2024, preview of the Africa & Byzantium exhibition, which included remarks by VIP delegates, and a tour of the exhibition. The exhibition is open to the public Sunday, April 14 through Sunday, July 21, 2024. It took over four years to bring Africa & Byzantium to the Cleveland Museum of Art. We appreciate being among the first people in Greater Cleveland to view these historic artworks, many of which have never been shown in the United States.

Africa & Byzantium is Now Open!
Cleveland Museum of Art
. . . Apr 17, 2024

We created this blog post to share our photos from our visit, along with our impressions of the exhibition.

Africa & Byzantium Preview

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. . . a preview of Africa & Byzantium, the first international loan exhibition to consider the complex artistic relationships between northern and eastern African Christian kingdoms and the Byzantine Empire. Featuring more than 160 secular and sacred artworks, the exhibition sheds new light on the foundational artistic achievements of Africa from the fourth century CE and beyond. The art and faith of these historical kingdoms—including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—resonate with many worldwide today.

What follows is a video of our photos from the day. We recommend stopping the video to look closely at the maps and timeline that are shown at the beginning of the exhibition, as well as stopping to read the descriptions of the artwork. For Stuart, it was interesting to see that the period of history and the areas of the world covered by the exhibition included those he had not studied. He had studied in history classes the time periods before and after those which the exhibition covers.

We recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
Please feel free to pause the video to read the interesting facts that are in the slides!!

Africa & Byzantium Opening Remarks

Media Preview Schedule:
3:00-4:00 p.m. – Remarks by VIP Delegates from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (Egypt); the Holy Monastery of St. Catherine (Sinai); and the National Heritage Institute (Tunisia)

Two of the comments made by the VIP delegates struck a chord with us. One of the speakers talked about how history resonates today like ripples in a pond. Another statement was that what is preserved here is not just the artifacts themselves, but also the thoughts and feelings of the people who created them.

Here is a video of our photos and brief videos of Curator of African Art Kristen Windmuller-Luna, PhD's welcome message and of the VIP delegates:

We recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.

If you want to learn more, we recommend taking a look at the post by fellow blogger, Dan Hanson: Africa & Byzantium Special Exhibition Preview. His blog post includes details about the VIP presenters, and a 14-minute video of their remarks.

Africa & Byzantium Tour

Media Preview Schedule:
. . .
4:00-5:00 p.m. – Tour led by Kristen Windmuller-Luna, curator of African Art

Kristen Windmuller-Luna joined the Cleveland Museum of Art in January 2020. As curator of African art, she is responsible for the museum’s collection of approximately 480 historical and contemporary African artworks spanning some 2,500 years of creativity. . . . Windmuller-Luna holds a PhD and MA in African arts and architectures from Princeton University and a BA in art history from Yale University.

The tour led by Curator of African Art Kristen Windmuller-Luna, PhD, was great. She shared some of the details and history of the artwork. We were fortunate to be able to talk to her after the tour.

We recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.

Africa & Byzantium 3D Models

Zamani Project
Digitally preserving Cultural Heritage Sites The Zamani documentation project captures spatial information of important Heritage Sites, mostly in Africa, to create a permanent 3D record of sites for restoration and conservation purposes and as a record for future generations.

During the tour we saw several QR codes that linked to online 3D models. We did not take time to look at them while at the museum, but instead grabbed the website addresses to look at when we were home. Here are the three that we looked at and they are best viewed in full screen mode:

Beta Giorgis (textured), Lalibela, Ethiopia by Zamani Project on Sketchfab

Meroe Pyramid Field (North) - Sudan by Zamani Project on Sketchfab

Aksum (Axum) Stelea Field - Ethiopia by Zamani Project on Sketchfab

Go to the individual Sketchfab web pages for each of these three models to read detailed descriptions of the models.