CLEVELAND, OH.- Experience nearly 160 works of secular and sacred art from across geographies and faiths in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s newest exhibition, Africa & Byzantium. From monumental frescoes, mosaics, and luxury goods such as metalwork and jewelry to panel paintings, architectural elements, textiles, and illuminated manuscripts, the exhibition explores the great civilizations that created their own unique arts while also building a shared visual culture across the regions linked by the Mediterranean and Red Seas, the Nile River, and the Sahara Desert. On view from Sunday, April 14, through Sunday, July 21, 2024, in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall, Africa & Byzantium examines a convergence of art and culture that shaped the world.

Three centuries after ancient Egypt’s pharaohs ended their rule, new African rulers built empires in the continent’s north and east. Spanning from the Aksumite Empire in present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea to Nubia’s Christian kingdoms in present-day Sudan, these complex civilizations cultivated economic, political, and cultural relationships with one another. The Byzantine Empire (Byzantium)—inheritor of the Roman Empire—also participated in these artistic and cultural networks as it briefly expanded into northern Africa (present-day Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Egypt).

“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,” said Dr. Kristen Windmuller-Luna, curator of African art at the CMA. “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 cultural and artistic relationships between distinct northeastern African kingdoms and the neighboring Byzantine Empire have previously been understudied. Africa & Byzantium introduces rich visual traditions from these regions, broadens public understanding of who and what comprised the Byzantine world (including its short 300 years on the African continent), and highlights the varied ways that polities and peoples across the Mediterranean Sea and Nile River basin interacted artistically and politically.

The CMA’s presentation is bolstered by loans from two local religious communities, reflecting years of community collaboration that powerfully demonstrates the contemporary relevance of the exhibition’s topic today. “Our work with local religious communities has been very meaningful,” continued Windmuller-Luna. “We are grateful for their willingness to tell their stories and loan their precious artworks to us. To share these Greater Clevelanders’ vivid perspectives, we have placed Community Voice labels throughout the exhibition, offering a firsthand glimpse of artworks’ personal significance. We have also included Community Voice videos in this exhibition, a first for the CMA.”

Here are highlights of the CMA’s presentation of Africa & Byzantium:

A recently acquired Ethiopian Orthodox Christian diptych painted by Wäldä Maryam or his workshop around 1700

Three larger-than-life medieval frescoes from Sudan’s Cathedral of Faras depicting the Virgin Mary, as well as Nubians protected by saints and Christ himself

The only icon painting by Angelos Akotantos (Cretan, d. 1450) in an American museum collection (CMA)

This once-in-a-lifetime international loan exhibition builds on the CMA’s legacy of nearly a century of exhibitions about arts from important African civilizations and cultures. Africa & Byzantium also reflects the CMA’s efforts since 2020 to present a broader view of African creativity, including the debut of northern African art in the permanent collection galleries and the museum’s first pan-continental presentation of African textiles in Stories from Storage in 2021.

Northern African arts have been part of the CMA’s collection since 1914. Perhaps best known are pharaonic-era Egyptian objects, among Africa’s most celebrated artworks. The CMA’s northern African holdings also include fine textiles and jewelry that Jeptha H. Wade II and his family purchased in Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia.

Africa & Byzantium aligns with the CMA’s goals of sharing a broad view of African artistic excellence and builds on the museum’s long history of major exhibitions celebrating the arts of important African cultures and kingdoms.