Permanent display
Closing soon
The Good Life: Collecting Late Antique Art at The Met
24 May 2021 — 7 May 2023 at Metropolitan Museum of Art
· New York City
"The Good Life: Collecting Late Antique Art at The Met" brought together a remarkable selection of works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's holdings to illuminate the rich visual culture of Late Antiquity — roughly the 3rd through 7th centuries CE.
The exhibition examined how wealthy patrons and collectors of the era surrounded themselves with finely crafted objects: silver vessels, ivory carvings, jewelry, textiles, and decorated furnishings that expressed status, faith, and aesthetic pleasure. These works reveal a world in transition, where classical traditions blended with early Christian imagery and the emerging cultures of Byzantium and the early medieval West.
On view from 2021 to 2023, the display offered visitors a rare opportunity to appreciate the depth and quality of The Met's Late Antique holdings, and to reflect on the enduring human desire for beauty and the good life.
The exhibition examined how wealthy patrons and collectors of the era surrounded themselves with finely crafted objects: silver vessels, ivory carvings, jewelry, textiles, and decorated furnishings that expressed status, faith, and aesthetic pleasure. These works reveal a world in transition, where classical traditions blended with early Christian imagery and the emerging cultures of Byzantium and the early medieval West.
On view from 2021 to 2023, the display offered visitors a rare opportunity to appreciate the depth and quality of The Met's Late Antique holdings, and to reflect on the enduring human desire for beauty and the good life.
About the venue
Metropolitan Museum of Art
· New York City
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the fourth-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5,727,258 visitors in fiscal year 2025, it was the most-visited museum in…
