Marble Decorative Panels
Unknown Artist
10th–11th century
Medium
Marble
Dimensions
Overall: 27 1/2 x 33 1/2 x 1 1/8 in. (69.9 x 85.1 x 2.9 cm)
Classification
Sculpture-Architectural
Culture
Byzantine
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Fletcher Fund, 1947
Accession Number
47.100.46
Art Historical Context
These exquisite Marble Decorative Panels, by an unknown artist in the10th–11th, hail from the Byzantine Empire during its Middle Byzantine period—a golden age of artistic splendor centered in Constantinople. Measuring 27½ x 33½ x 1⅛ inches, these architectural sculptures were likely designed to adorn the interiors of churches, palaces, or sacred spaces, where marble revetment panels transformed plain walls into shimmering displays of imperial and divine luxury. Byzantine artisans prized marble for its durability and luminous quality, quarried from ancient Roman sources and carved with precise ...