Vaults of Heaven: Visions of Byzantium May 10, 2011

This special exhibition focuses on the extraordinary photographs of select Byzantine churches in Turkey by the renowned photographer Ahmet Ertug, exploring some of the Christian themes in Byzantine art from the 6th though the 14th centuries. Christianity had a major impact on not only the daily lives of people within the Byzantine Empire but its art and architecture as well. The new religion exalted the spirit over the body, valued the idea of revelation and preparation for the afterlife, and rewarded pious behavior. These ideas were expressed artistically through a series of specific symbols and narratives. Although art continued, as it had in the Roman world, to serve the state, the state was now intimately intertwined with Christianity. The exhibition also contains more intimate objects from the Kelsey Museum's and University of Michigan Museum of Art's Byzantine and Islamic collections, including coins, pages from manuscripts, tiles, glass, ivory and bone carvings, and objects used in daily life. Taken together, the items on display--both the impressive, large-scale photographs and the smaller-scale objects--offer a window onto the exceptional world of ancient Byzantium.