Africa & Byzantium

The artistic achievements of Africa in the Middle Ages have long been overshadowed by those of the Byzantine Empire. This show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York aims to redress the balance, revealing the role that African kingdoms played in the cultural and economic life of Byzantium and in the Mediterranean more widely, through paintings, sculpture, manuscripts and pottery (19 November–3 March 2024). Some 200 artworks dating from the Roman to early modern periods go on show, including complex polychrome Tunisian mosaics (late 2nd century CE) on loan from the Louvre Museum in Paris and the Carthage National Museum in Tunisia, as well as medieval Ethiopian artworks such as the gilded Marian Triptych (mid-late 15th century), on loan from the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. Find out more on the Met’s website.

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Mosaic panel of preparations for a feast (late 2nd century), Tunisia. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Photo: Hervé Lewandowski; © RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY

Lady of Carthage (4th–5th century CE), Tunisia. © Musée National de Carthage

Lady of Carthage (4th–5th century), Tunisia. © Musée National de Carthage

Jewelled bracelet (c. 500–700). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Marian Triptych (detail; mid–late 15th century), Ethiopia. National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C. Photo: Franko Khoury; © National Museum of African Art

Marian Triptych (mid–late 15th century), Ethiopia. National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C. Photo: Franko Khoury; © National Museum of African Art