These dramatic new sunlit spaces, situated in McKinlock Court (G150–154), a strategic crossroad of the museum, have been fully re-imagined to present some of the Art Institute’s oldest and most significant objects in fresh and compelling new ways. With over 150 exceptional loans from private collections and public institutions around the world complementing the museum’s own rich holdings, the inaugural display, titled Of Gods and Glamour, allows the Art Institute to tell the rich story of lives led in the ancient and medieval Mediterranean world. Life-size marble sculptures of goddesses and portraits of emperors and empresses, dazzling jewelry and shiny silver tableware give an indication of the “good life” lived hundreds, even thousands, of years ago. The unveiling of the Jaharis Galleries also included an inaugural celebratory exhibition of 51 incom¬parable works of late Roman and early Byzantine art loaned by the British Museum, many of which have never before traveled to the United States.

More than 450 guests celebrated the opening of the Art Institute of Chicago’s newest suite of gallery spaces. The naming of the space was in recognition of the Jaharis family’s generous $10 million donation, the largest gift in the history of the ancient art collection of the Art Institute.

The festive evening began with cocktails and hors d’ouevres at 6:00 p.m. at the Michigan Avenue entrance, followed by a 6:30 p.m. ribbon cutting ceremony and a blessing by His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America that marked the official opening of the new galleries. Guests then had an opportunity to survey the more than 450 marble, ceramic, gold, and silver treasures, arranged chronologically around McKinlock Court.

Designed by the museum’s Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art and Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY Architecture, the new galleries include state-of-the-art display cases built by Goppion Museum Workshop in Milan, Italy.

“The generosity of Mary and Michael Jaharis has allowed us to reconceive our presentation of ancient and Byzantine art in a way never before possible in the museum’s history,” said Douglas Druick, President and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute. “And critically, these new galleries represent the last phase of the complete reinstallation of the museum, begun in 2008 and occasioned by the construction of the Modern Wing. Building a better relationship among the collections and the revitalization of McKinlock Court have now finally been realized.”

“It is a tremendous honor to work with such a rich collection of works,” said Karen Manchester, chair and curator of Ancient Art, Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art. “The gift from the Jaharis Family Foundation has allowed the Art Institute to literally re-present our Greek, Roman, and Byzantine works of art—from how and where they are displayed to how they are interpreted. It is fitting, too, that these galleries have been constructed at the intersection of many of our outstanding collections, allowing us to show the lineage of art from the ancient Mediterranean world in the abstractions in the Modern Wing, the neoclassical sculpture in our American collection, and the sculptures from the kingdom of Gandhara in our Alsdorf Galleries of Indian, Southeast Asian, Himalayan, and Islamic Art.”

The 51 masterpieces on display in the special exhibition Late Roman and Early Byzantine Treasures from the British Museum bear witness to the profound transformation that took place over three centuries (from A.D. 350¬–650). The gradual stylistic shift from a Greco-Roman naturalism towards a more Byzantine aes¬thetic can be seen in the Reliquary of St. Menas, carved in ivory during the sixth century. The more abstract and static imagery of the saints’ martyrdom on the reliquary is markedly different than that of the silver chest for bathing accessories, which predates the reliquary by almost 200 years. For its part, The Lycurgus Cup vividly exemplifies the refinement and spectacle of lavish tableware proudly used throughout the late Roman Empire. This extraordinary fourth-century cup ap¬pears green in reflected light but turns a brilliant red when light is transmitted through it, thanks to the addition of gold and silver particles to the molten glass. The Art Institute is proud to be the sole venue for this special presentation.

The Jaharis Galleries’ stunning display of the museum’s permanent collection is enriched by two additional resources. One gallery offers a look into the fascinating preservation and conservation work performed on the ob¬jects newly on display, while LaunchPad: Ancient and Byzantine Art, a new interactive multimedia program stationed at 16 kiosks throughout the galleries, provides a wealth of information on selected objects on display. Also available is a richly illustrated publication, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago, authored by Karen Manchester, chair and curator of the Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art, with an essay by Karen Alexander.