Museum of Fine Arts in Boston opens new Byzantine, Greek, and Roman galleries

You can’t miss the largest Classical statue in the US, a 13,000-pound statue of Juno, but be sure not to pass go without also seeing the Monopoli Altarpiece when you visit the new Byzantine, Greek, and Roman galleries at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The freshly renovated galleries open on Saturday, December 18 with a day of free admission for the public.

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) supported the revamped Byzantine Gallery, the first such gallery in New England, whose design is meant to call to mind the architecture of a centrally planned Byzantine church. The sounds of liturgical hymns form an auditory backdrop for the almost 190 works capturing the Byzantine Empire’s liminal position between East and West, tradition and innovation, paganism and Christianity.

The new galleries incorporate interactive elements and digital learning tools, and SNF’s support follows two important facets of its mission: opening up access to cultural resources for all and helping share Greek culture and history around the world. The grant for the Byzantine gallery builds on previous SNF support for a gallery on daily life in ancient Greece and the endowment for a curatorial internship in Classical art at the museum.