NARRATOR: These cloisonné enamels are considered among the most marvelous surviving middle Byzantine works of art.

Helen Evans is a curator specializing in Byzantine art at The Metropolitan Museum.

HELEN EVANS: What makes these so incredibly exciting is the sophistication and the detailing of the cloisonné enamel, which is a technique where thin strips of metal are attached vertically to a background, and the cells are the divisions that are created from the pattern that’s arranged or filled with crushed glass, and then fired, and at times fired several times…

And if you look carefully at these enamels, you will see that on the foreheads of many of these figures, there were half-cloisonné that look like wrinkles when you look at them. And if you look at these halos that are decorated with tiny crosses and circles in multiple colors, you can see that some of the cloisonné are silver, and some are gold. And that this is as superb a sophistication of color harmonies, of design, of an artist’s skill being applied to a religious message, as one could possibly create.

NARRATOR: Originally, twelve medallions decorated the frame of a large icon, which was found in a monastery in what is now the Republic of Georgia, an important political and cultural power at the time. The nine medallions you see here include the three that would be at the top – Christ flanked by his mother, the Virgin; and John the Baptist, who foretold the coming of Christ. The apostles and various saints were positioned along the sides, with their eyes directed toward the icon.