The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Byzantium and Islam - Age of Transition,” focusing of the Eastern Mediterranean from the 7th through the 10th century, will open on Wednesday, March 14 in New York after a gala reception on Monday. The exhibition will run through July 8. After being welcomed by golden walls inscribed with Byzantine script and Arab lettering, guests move through a number of galleries, as through Byzantine or Arab palaces apropos of the glittering and fascinating objects on display. The Byzantine rooms are entered through rounded archways, the others through characteristically pointed Islamic arches. Exhibition organizer Helen C. Evans, the Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator of Byzantine said “The dialogue between established Byzantine and evolving Islamic styles and culture, as a central theme of the exhibition, will be demonstrated through works of art connected with authority, religion, and trade.”

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