Tunis: After an initial display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from November 19, 2023 to March 03, 2024, drawing nearly 190,000 visitors, a collection of works from Tunisia on the Byzantine period (from the foundation of Constantinople to the fall of the city by the Ottomans) is currently on show at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, as part of the 2nd stage of the largest travelling exhibition in the United States of America “Africa and Byzantium,” held on April 14-July 21, 2024.
The pieces, from three museums – the National Museum of Carthage, the Archaeological Museum of Enfidha and the National Museum of Islamic Art in Raqqada – TAP learned, bear witness to the contribution of African know-how and its influence on art and culture throughout the Byzantine Empire in its eastern and western parts, highlighting the influence of North Africa on Byzantine civilisation in its artistic, cultural and religious expressions.
The collection consists of two mosaics, including “The Lady of Carthage,”
considered to be one of the exhibition’s masterpieces. This emblematic piece from the Carthage Museum is a female representation that should be the personification of the city of Carthage in the Christian era.
Also on display are Christian lamps depicting Adam and Eve and the twelve apostles, terracotta tiles depicting the sacrifice of Abram, with biblical themes and Christian motifs, and two sheets of the Koran dating from the 8th and 9th centuries, when Africa became a Muslim empire.
A delegation from the National Heritage Institute (INP) led by its Managing Director Tarek Baccouche, attended the inauguration of the second and final phase of the travelling exhibition, in which Tunisia is participating alongside several other countries including Egypt, Morocco, France and Greece, with collections dating from the 4th and 5th centuries and tracing the relationship between Africa and the Byzantine Empire.
According to information presented by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “the Africa and Byzantium exhibiti
on recounts Africa’s central role in international networks of trade and cultural exchange. With nearly 200 artworks rarely or never before seen in public, Africa and Byzantium sheds new light on the staggering artistic achievements of medieval Africa.”
“This long-overdue exhibition highlights how the continent contributed to the development of the premodern world and offers a more complete history of the vibrant multiethnic societies of north and east Africa that shaped the artistic, economic, and cultural life of Byzantium and beyond.”
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse