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ArtByzantium! A name that glitters. A synonym for formality, unbending etiquette, luxury, exoticism. A word that stands for unyielding resistance to change, for codified, inflexible forms, for intrigue and bloodthirsty scheming. Say Byzantium and you stand before processions of saints and martyrs trapped in shimmering fields of gold and glass tesserae. You conjure up rigid figures who glare fiercely from the confines of icons and manuscripts, their gorgeously colored robes heavy with embroidery and punctuated by overscaled jewels, their gestures ritualized, exaggerated, theatrical. You see Yeatss sages standing in Gods holy fire/ as in the gold mosaic of a wall, their solemn progress and otherworldly setting alike echoed by the thudding reiterations of gold and golden in the stunning last stanza of Sailing to Byzantium. The reality of what that mag ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 15 May 1997, on page 46 Copyright © 2009 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/byzantium-wilkin-3335
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by Karen Wilkin On “Watteau, Music, and Theater” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Vermeer & Monet at the Met & MoMA by Karen Wilkin On "Vermeer’s Masterpiece: The Milkmaid" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York & “Monet’s Water Lilies” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. by Marco Grassi On "The Art of Devotion: Panel Painting in Early Renaissance Italy," Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, Vermont. On "In Pursuit of Knowledge: 600 Years of Leipzig University," The Grolier Club, New York. by Mario Naves On "Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction" at the Whitney Museum of Art, New York. New from The New Criterion: "Free speech in EventsNovember 09 2009 YOUNG FRIENDS: Tour of an important contemporary art collection November 24 2009 OPEN EVENT: Laura Jacobs reading December 02 2009 Friends Event: The Swallow Anthology Reading Webcasts
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