** GLASS OF THE BYZANTINE PERIOD & EARLY MIDDLE AGES

The Metropolitan Museum’s collection of medieval art, one of the richest in the world, encompasses the art of this long and complex period in all of its many phases, from its pre-Christian antecedents in Western Europe through the early Christian, Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic periods.  This is the period between ancient and modern times in Western civilization, known as the Middle Ages. Extends from the fourth to the early sixteenth century, that is roughly from the Fall of Rome to the beginning of the Renaissance in Northern Europe.

In the Fall of 2000 new galleries for Byzantine and early European art opened at the Museum in a dramatically expanded and redesigned space that includes an intimate gallery under the Grand Staircase.  The period of time this covers is from the late 300’s to 800’s and shows the glass of the Byzantines, Franks, Langobards, Visigoths, Anglo-Saxons, and other peoples.  The examples are from these galleries.