Byzantine Hours
21 October, 2001 - 10 January, 2002

On 21-22 October, 2001, exhibitions were opened in museums of the Greek cities of Athens and Thessalonike displaying masterpieces of the Byzantine art of the 4th-15th centuries: icons, manuscripts, marble sculptures, ivory, silver and jewelry from the world's greatest museums. Among the participants are the British Museum and British Library (London), Louvre (Paris), Metropolitan Museum (New York), Dumbarton Oaks Museum (Washington), Italian museums including the museum of the Cathedral of San Marco in Venice, Sinai Monastery and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. The State Hermitage provided 8 applied art pieces of the Byzantine art of the 6th-11th centuries.

Byzantium: Center of the Ecumene is the name of the exhibition held in the Byzantine and Christian Museum at Athens. The Hermitage collection is represented by the gilded silver bowl with a depiction of the Ascent of Alexander of Macedon (12th cent.) and a wing of the ivory Diptych of the Consul Areobindus (506).

The idea of the exhibition in the Museum of Byzantine Culture (White Tower) in Thessalonike is to represent the everyday life of Byzantium. The Hermitage loaned for the exhibit silver pieces: Jug with Nereids (641-651), Amphora (6th cent.), Dish with a Shepherd (527-565), Dish with Feeding of a Serpent (6th cent.), Bowl Cover with Musicians and Actors (12th cent.) and the ivory-clad Chest with Heracles, Centaurs and Musicians (11th cent.).

An album and scientific catalogue in Greek were published by the inauguration of the Athenian exhibition. Scientific catalogues in English are being prepared.

Silver plate with representation of a maenad feeding a sacred snake
6th century
Hermitage Museum
Exhibited at the White
Tower, Thessaloniki

Silver plate with a pastoral scene
527-565
Hermitage Museum
Exhibited at the White Tower, Thessaloniki