The Byzantine Collection at Dumbarton Oaks includes many of the finest examples of artworks produced in Byzantium, an empire centered in Constantinople (today’s Istanbul) from roughly the fourth through fifteenth century CE. Less well known are the museum’s substantial holdings of ancient and late antique art, collected as part of what Mildred Barnes Bliss called the “Mediterranean interpretation” of humanistic research.
Exhibit Items
Roman copy of Greek original of 2nd century BCE–3rd century CE; marble; 19.7 cm (7 3/4 in.). BZ.1939.1
Romano-Arabian, 2nd century; bronze; 102 × 28 × 106 cm (40 3/16 × 11 × 41 3/4 in.). BZ.1938.12
Rome, date uncertain; bronze; 144 × 25.8 × 14.8 cm (56 11/16 ×10 3/16 × 5 13/16 in.). BZ.1940.22
Late Roman, 3rd–4th century; porphyry; 40 × 45 cm (15 3/4 × 17 11/16 in.). BZ.1941.5
Ptolemaic Egyptian, late 2nd–early 1st century BCE; limestone; 31.5 × 17.5 × 19.5 cm (12 3/8 × 6 7/8 in. × 7 11/16 in.). BZ.1937.13
Roman, 1st century, copy of Greek original of 3rd century BCE; marble; 34 × 17.5 × 23 cm (13 3/8 × 6 7/8 × 9 1/16 in.). BZ.1946.2
Persian, 486–465 BCE; limestone; 50 × 30 × 10.2 cm (19 11/16 × 11 13/16 × 4 in.). BZ.1932.4
Persian, 486–465 BCE; limestone; 37.5 × 67.5 × 9 cm (14 3/4 × 26 9/16 × 3 9/16 in.). BZ.1931.1
Late Roman, 3rd-4th century; mosaic; 144.8 × 94 cm (57 × 37 in.). BZ.1967.44.2a
Late Roman, late 2nd or 3rd century; mosaic; 167.5 × 264.5 cm (65 15/16 × 104 1/8 in.). BZ.1940.64.